Questionable Legality
by MonkeyShooter07
Summary: No, Ian's not involved, but you might like it anyway. Yeah, there's a lot of Riley drama stories, but here goes my take. Riley's life is going so well, what happens when a letter changes everything? Does he accept it, or let it get the best of him?
1. Prologue

"Come on, Riley! God, you take longer to get ready than I do!" Amber called as she banged on the bathroom door. "We're gonna be late. What are you doin' in there, anyway?"

The toilet flushed and the faucet ran. She heard the lock click and the door flew open in front of her. Out of the bathroom emerged a freshly showered, shaved and yet, still slightly disheveled Riley. "It's a bathroom, Amber. What do ya think I was doin'?"

"I'm afraid to ask."

"'When nature calls,' sweetheart," he shrugged. She shuddered at the mental image.

"Come on. My sister's gonna think we're dead." Amber grabbed his arm and pulled him to the Ferrari.

"I still don't know why I have to meet her. What's the point of this again?"

"She's my family. Since our parents are dead, think of it as _Meet the Sister_." Riley groaned and rolled his eyes. "Come on, she's gonna love you." He opened the door for her and she climbed in.

"How do you know?" he asked as he literally hopped into the driver's seat.

"Because I love you," she said with a big smile. He grinned, satisfied with that answer. They started to drive off. _Shift, grrrind, grriiind, shift._

"I have to tell you, I'm not exactly good at these sorta things," he confessed after about five minutes of silence.

"Don't worry. Just be yourself…She's really excited about meeting you, ya know. Just relax."

They pulled up to a white rowhome in Downtown D.C. just a few blocks from Capitol Hill. A beautiful blonde with a stunning figure (large breasts and all), only exaggerated by her short stature, and brilliant blue eyes, stood leaning against the wall that came about waist high on her, that made the banister to the steps. She was dressed in black flared slacks and a pressed white top and open suit jacket.

"Anna!" Amber shouted. She didn't even wait for Riley to open the door. She bounded up the steps and threw her arms around her. Riley followed wearily, still a little nervous.

_Wow, looks must run in the family, _he thought. _Damn._

"Take it easy, Amber, I'm not a stuffed animal. I need air eventually," she said. Amber pulled back and grabbed Riley. "Ah, this must be the infamous Riley Poole." She pulled him into a hug. "It's good to finally meet you," she said with a little bit of relief in her voice.

When their embrace ended, Riley had to ask, "Did you wait for us out here the whole time?"

Anna smiled. "No, I heard you coming."

"What?"

"The Ferrari, it's the only V-12 that's been in these parts. It's a pretty distinct sound. Even more unique given the transmission noise. From the look of you, I'd say you walked in, picked it out, paid sticker and drove it off the floor, never bothering to learn how to drive it," she added under her breath before continuing. "How many transmissions have you put in it since you bought it?"

"Uh…Two," he faltered. He looked at Amber for help, who smiled.

"She loves to show off. She's a U.S. Marshal," she whispered.

"Dude, she's the enemy," he quipped.

_Not the F.B.I._, she thought. "Your clutch is probably bad, too. I heard you grindin' the gears. Do you let it catch before you shift?"

"You know cars?" he asked stunned.

"Yeah. I can fix it for you if you like," she said opening the front door for them to go in.

"You can? _You?_" he asked, half referring to her appearance, half to the fact that she's a woman.

"Ya know, I can also dress, feed and bathe myself, too," she retorted sarcastically.

"I like her," he smiled at Amber.

"I knew you would," she said. A half relieved, half satisfied smile plastered itself across her face.

XXXXXXXXXXX

That was six months ago and Riley will never forget it. He and Anna had become good friends. They had learned a lot from each other, but Riley was the one who always seemed to be learning something new about Anna, rather than the other way around. She taught him how to shoot, how to drive the Ferrari without ruining the transmission, but his favorite was the fact that she liked the treasure hunting and history, too. And all this happened in one day.

"Your full name is Annamaria Gabriella Diadoro?" he asked looking at one of the many degrees that hung on the wall of her living room. _It's beautiful, just like you, _he thought, but kept his teasing ruse up.

"Yeah. Our parents were proud to be Italian and American. I got the Italian name, and Amber, the American," she answered nonchalantly. "She always got everything better, except the name," she added with a little hint of jealousy.

"Do I detect a little sibling rivalry?"

"Just a tad. It's not that Mom and Dad loved her more, it's just that they paid more attention to her growin' up. She's the baby, so she got babied."

"I know what you mean," he said sadly. She looked at him quizzically. "My brother and I always competed as kids. Don't get me wrong, we were tight, it's just that he was always better at everything." He looked at the floor, depressed by the memory.

"Not everything," she smiled. She reached for his cheek and turned his face to hers. "You have the bigger heart…And you're funnier," she said with a brighter tone than the first part.

"How would you know? You never met Alex."

"By the way you talk about him. He seems like a pretty cold guy," she finally said. _Almost caught again_, she thought.

"Well he wasn't!" he said defensively. "He was a great man! He was smart, loving, funny, everything a man should be!"

"'Was'?" she asked confused. _Please believe this._

He relaxed his frame and said quietly, "He's dead. He died seven years ago." His eyes returned to the floor. He put his face into his hands.

"I'm sorry," she said sitting next to him. She put a hand on his back and the other around his arm in an attempt to comfort him. _Whew, _she thought. "It's okay to miss him," she said, somehow reading his thoughts. "C'mon, drink this, you'll feel better." She handed him the glass she had just gotten.

"Thank you," he said almost inaudibly. That's when his gaze fell upon a book on the coffee table. His book. "You borrowed your sister's book?"

"No, it's mine," she said, sitting straighter in the realization that he'd be okay for the time being. Just then, her cell phone rang. "Excuse me…Diadoro…" she answered.

Riley took it upon himself to put in on the shelf when something about it caught his eye. There were black marks on the edges of the first two pages. Curious, he opened it. _"T_o _Amber, a gem in the Black Hills—Riley Poole." _Then it hit him, or so he thought. _Amber must've borrowed it to really read. Anna only has it because she's a Marshal, _he thought, a little more saddened.

"Riley? What's wrong?" she asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, nothin'." He closed the book quickly and placed it on the shelf, hoping she didn't notice.

"You sure?"

He nodded. "Uh, yeah," he said quickly spinning around. "What's up?"

"I gotta go. Duty calls, I'm sorry. We'll go to target practice tomorrow, okay? I promise."

"Sure, no problem," he answered, still a little distant.

"What, do you and Amber have plans? Cuz if so, you pick a day, I'll ask off—"

"No, no, it's fine," he interrupted quickly. He smiled. "I'm gonna go, then. See ya tomorrow."

"Bye," she said, walking him out. She watched him leave, then, left herself.

The next day at the shooting range, everything seemed to be back to normal. At least with Riley.

"I feel kinda like James Bond. How do I look?" he asked, doing his best spy pose, gun in hand.

Anna laughed. "Ridiculous."

"Hey," he said pretending to be hurt. "Just because you really are a spy doesn't mean you have to crush my dreams."

"I'm a Marshal, not C.I.A."

"And I still don't feel safe around you. I know you could kick my ass with no problem, but yet somehow, that gives me no feeling of security."

"Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome. Don't worry, at least we'd be alive if it were up to you to protect us. If it were up to me, we'd both be dead."

"What does that mean?"

"You've seen me fight. I lost to a punching bag. Then, the mannequin kicked my ass before I finally just knocked it over!"

"And even then, it came back up and hit you in the face." She laughed at the memory.

"Shut up!" His face reddened. "I'm changin' the subject. Why do you have a copy of my book if your sister has one, too?"

"Actually, Amber borrowed my copy. No offense, but I have it because I work for a government agency and—"

"I get it, it's a book about conspiracy theories so you only read it because they gave it to you," he said disappointed.

"No, I said, 'I _have_ it because they gave it to me.' I _read_ it because I wanted to."

He looked up with a little smile. "Because you had nothin' else to do, right?"

"You're just a 'glass half full' kinda guy, aren't ya, Riley?" she smiled.

"Yup, that's me!"

"I _wanted_ to read it because I love that stuff. History was my minor in college. Then, I got a Bachelor's in it a few years ago. Conspiracy theories were my parents' thing. They embedded them into Amber and me. So I woulda bought it anyway. Feel better?"

"A little." Anna just shook her head.

"It's gettin' late, we should head back," she said finally. There was a distant look in her eye that told Riley something was wrong.

"What's up?" he asked, a little concerned.

"What? Nothin'. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night. What time _is_ it?" she asked. She looked at her cell phone.

"It's only twelve thirty," he answered, not even having to look at his watch. "C'mon, it's not late at all. What's wrong?" he pushed.

"I just—I need to get back, okay?"

"C'mon, I'm just gettin' the hang of this!" He wasn't satisfied with the answer, but he knew he'd get nowhere with her. He'd figured out that that was Anna. There's a problem, I'll go to work, not deal with it. Especially if it required talking to someone. She wasn't that type. He just figured it came with the nature of her job.

"You wanna stay? Fine, I can't stop you, but I gotta go." She started to go outside.

"How are you gonna get home? _I_ drove."

"Yeah, badly," she scoffed.

"Hey, you wanna get pissed off about whatever's botherin' you and not talk about it, then fine, but don't take it out on me!"

"Shut up, Riley! You have no idea what this is about!"

"You're right. But that can change, not to mention your demeanor, if you just tell me," he pleaded. He tried to joke to brighten her up a little.

"I don't wanna argue with you, but I can't tell you."

"Yes you can." He took her hand, not even realizing what he was doing. "Please."

Her eyes saddened. "You're gonna think this is my automatic answer for everything, but this time it's true. I can't discuss an ongoing investigation."

"This is about the phone call you got yesterday, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I thought shootin' out my frustration would help, but I was wrong," she confessed.

"See, now _that's_ an answer." She smiled. "We'll go wherever you wanna go," he said trying to get her mind off of whatever this was about.

She thought for a minute. "How 'bout the old abandoned warehouse just outside of town?" she asked hopefully.

"What for?" he asked confused.

"You'll see."

"Okaay…" he said cautiously.

They walked to the car. He was excited he was giving it to Anna so she could fix it today. They had agreed she would take him home and drive his "baby" back to her place when they were done for the day. The car started up and he grinded his way into gear.

"You're in reverse," Anna piped up.

"No I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"_No_, I'm not."

She had her arm resting on the door. She put her head to her fingers in frustration. "Fine," she said. "Drive."

He started t move—backwards. "Whoa!" He slammed on the brakes and the clutch before they hit anything.

"Told ya," she said. Her position never changed. She looked over at him after a moment. "That's part of your problem. You don't let the clutch catch and you don't know your gear box. Look—" She took his hand and guided him through a trick her father taught her when she was learning how to drive.

"What are you doin'?"

"Now you know why I wanted to go to the parking lot of the warehouse. It takes practice. Now go on, go."

They made it there, slowly, but surely. Teaching Riley how to shift without grinding his gears proved harder than it looked. Or so she found out…The hard way.

"No, you're not listening. Nice and smooth: clutch down, push away the gear shift." _Grrr-cruunk._ She put her head down in exasperated defeat. "You're in fifth gear. You skipped two gears. You're not listening to me, you're not listening to the car, I don't know what to do with you, I swear!" Her hands went up in an "I give up" motion.

"The car's not talkin' to me and _you're_ yelling at me. I don't like it when people yell at me," he confessed. "It makes me nervous."

"Sorry. Look, the car _is_ talking to you, you're just not listening to it. I want you to put it back in first and listen to the engine. I'll stay quiet, I promise." He gave her a funny look, but did what he was told. "Okay, now start to drive. _Don't shift!_"

"Okay," he said nervously. He started to move. The tachometer climbed. He moved to shift, but she swatted his hand away. Higher it climbed and the engine made a funny noise and started to jerk.

"Here that? I know you feel that. Let off the gas. Do it again, but when you hear it start to sound like it's strainin', shift. Nice and smooth." He started again. He began to hear and feel the change before it got too bad and shifted. Then, to third gear, then he anticipated it, fourth gear, smoothly into fifth gear, and even smoother into sixth. "See? It's simple. You just had to listen."

"I think she's thanking me right now," he laughed.

"You're a weird kid, ya know that?"

"Why? Because I called the car a 'she'?"

"No, I do that, too. Because you actually bought that bullshit!" She started to laugh a little harder.

"Hey, as long as it works!" The laughter settled down when Riley got serious and asked, "Hey, you wanna drive? I mean, she's gotta get used to you in the saddle if you're gonna fix her up."

Surprised, Anna asked, "Really? You sure?"

"Yeah, here," he said getting out. "Slide over." She did so as he got in the passenger's seat. "Wow, I've never sat over here before. Feels kinda weird."

Anna let out a little giggle. "You ready?"

"For what? Umf!" he said as he was thrown backwards with her take off. He looked at her in awe as she shifted gears at full throttle. She made it look easy.

"Sorry!" she shouted, obvious thrill in her voice. "Hang on!"

The car jerked to the right, then, everything was spinning. Next thing he knew, he was being pushed backwards again. His eyes wandered to Anna, who was enjoying this to no end. She kept shifting, in and out of gear, into neutral, back to first, into reverse. Riley got a little dizzy, then, felt sick to his stomach. Then, the car came to a screeching halt an inch away from a tree on his side. He instinctively crouched. When the car finally stopped, he cautiously sat back up and looked around.

"You okay over there?" he heard from his left. He turned to see that Anna was still laughing with a bit of giddiness. She stroked the steering wheel as if it were an animal. "Nicely done, girl."

"Are you _insane_?! What the hell were you doin'?"

"Driving," she answered simply. "You didn't shit yourself over there, did ya?"

"No…But I was about to." He sat up straighter and raised himself to see the skid marks on the pavement. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear they spelled out "Annamaria D."

"I can do that in reverse, too. Wanna see?"

"No! No, it's fine," he said, still trying to calm his breathing.

"It's gettin' dark, anyway. You wanna go back now?"

"Yes, please." He closed his eyes, trying to get the images out of his head. She put the car into gear and drove off.

"You still with me?" She glanced over at him at a red light. His eyes were still closed, head back, resting on the seat, and he hadn't spoken a word since they left the parking lot.

He let out a heavy breath. "Yeah, I'm okay." He wiped his face with his hand. "You are aware you coulda killed us back there, right?"

"Nah, we were safe. Besides, we're in a Ferrari 360 Spider, this is the car to do that in. You just don't appreciate her for the work of art she really is. You're afraid of her, aren't you?"

"After that? I'm afraid of _you_! Where'd you learn how to drive like that?"

"My dad. He taught me a lot of things my mom didn't approve of. Partly because she thought they were dangerous and partly because I'm a girl. When Amber was born, she sheltered her from all that stuff as best she could. That's why I find it so nice to talk to you about it. I can't talk to her…" she paused for a minute. "Before you, she was really my only friend."

_Wow_, he thought, but all he could do was listen.

They drove in near silence the rest of the way home. The only break in the sound was the occasional shift in gears Anna had to make. Riley was actually lucky nothing more had happened to the car in the past six months. Anna had promised to fix it when they first met, and was going to, when she was called away. This was the first chance she'd gotten since then to take the project on.

"I promise, I'll take good care of her!" she called as Riley got out to go inside.

He stopped and returned to the passenger side. "You, uh, wanna come in for a minute? I'll make you a drink or somethin', uh…anything you want." His face blushed a little, embarrassed by his stutter.

Anna smiled warmly, "No, thanks. I have early hours tomorrow, I really should go."

"H-How early?"

"Midnight early." He fidgeted a little and put his hands down on the door. She looked him over. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, nothin', I was just…just wonderin'. Uh, well, good night," he said, waving a hand.

"Good night," she replied with furrowed eyebrows. _What's up with him? _she thought.

_That was smooth, Dude. Real smooth_, he thought as he watched her drive away.


	2. The Letter

A/N: Ok, I really don't wanna keep saying this: I Don't Own It!! That's the last time I'm sayin it. I'd also like to say I'm sorry for not reviewing any of your brilliant works. I couldn't get my login to work for the longest time, so I made this one. It's the same as the old, just with numbers lol. On that note, I'd like to say I didn't mean to make In a Ship's Wake one giant chapter. I was new to the site and it was an accident lol. Thanks for all your support and reviews!! They keep me going!! Anyway, here's the chapter!! You asked so nicely and it's a friend of mine's birthday, so here's the update.

It was a good thing Riley really had nowhere to go for the next two weeks. It would've taken less time for Anna to fix the Ferrari, but she had to wait for the Italian parts to be shipped. So with that, a two day job took two weeks.

Ben was over Riley's place because he needed the car to run some errands. They were pretty mundane, so he didn't even stop to think when he, out of habit, went to get the mail. Riley sat in the passenger's seat of Ben's car flipping through the mail, almost not paying a bit of attention, until he came across a letter.

"What's that?" Ben asked.

"I dunno. I don't recognize the handwriting…Well, one way to find out," he said tearing it open. A white, kind of chalky substance was very finely sprinkled on the paper. Riley didn't even notice it until he took his hand away. He read the short, rather odd, letter out loud:

"Mr. Poole—

You have a debt to be paid. It shouldn't be hard, given your new found wealth, but that's not what we're after. Bring your friends, the Gates', if you like. We may require their expertise as well.

Lives depend on this, Mr. Poole. That is not a threat. That is a promise."

"Is it signed?" Ben piped up.

"No," Riley said flipping both the paper and the envelope over for any sign of identification. "It's probably nothin' anyway. They didn't even tell me what they want." He folded the paper back up and placed it back in the envelope. That's when he noticed his fingers were white. "Huh?" he said rubbing his fingers together.

"What?"

"There was somethin' on the paper. It's on my hands. See?" He held his hand out for Ben to take a look.

"What is it?" he asked, quite close to the substance.

"Not sure." Riley held it up to his nose. "Doesn't smell like anything. Eh, who knows, probably just some dust or chalk," he shrugged, wiping it onto his pants. "Come on in."

About two hours later, Anna showed up with Riley's car. "Did somebody order a Ferrari?!"

"I did, I did!" Riley jumped out into the sidewalk like a kid who had just stopped the ice cream truck. "Did ya fix it, did ya? Is it good? Does she run nice?" he said all at once.

Anna was completely lost. She raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, she runs like a champ. Of course, she'll only stay that way if you remember what I taught you."

"Catch clutch, push away the gear shift, got it! Come on inside, meet Ben," he said just as quickly as before. He grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

"You okay?"

"Never better, why?"

"Because you're awfully hyper."

"'Awfully'? Who says 'awfully' anymore? Ben, come here! This is Anna, Anna this is Ben Gates."

"Hello, nice to meet you. So, this is the beautiful blonde you've been spending all your time with? What happened to Amber?" Ben said, almost as quickly as Riley had been speaking.

"Shut up, Ben! This is Amber's sister, we're just friends," Riley shot back through gritted teeth, as if Anna couldn't hear any of the conversation. Luckily for them, she decided to ignore the comments.

"So, did I miss an Energizer Bunny convention? Because you two are supercharged," she threw in.

"Nope, we're just fine," Riley answered. Then, the doorbell rang. "I'm gonna go get that. Get acquainted!" he shouted and buzzed out of the room. He answered the door to see Abigail. "Hey, yeah, Ben's still here. You can come in and get him, oh, and meet Anna."

"Wow, what did you eat or drink and where can I get some? I'm gonna need it for work," she said just as puzzled as Anna.

"They're both like that," a voice said from beside her. She jumped a little. "Sorry. Hi, I'm Anna," she said holding out her hand.

Abigail took it, "Hi, Abigail." She turned to see Riley zipping through the house with drinks, snacks, and anything else one could possibly think of. Abigail turned to Anna with a "What's goin' on?" Anna just shrugged.

"C'mon, c'mon. Make yourselves at home!" Riley pushed.

"Riley, shouldn't you slow down?" Anna asked.

"Nope, I can't. I'm fine, though. Coke? Water, anything else?"

"No, thanks. What do you mean, 'you can't'?"

"I mean, I've tried. I've been fidgety for the past two hours. Although…" He slowed down and nearly fell onto the couch, quickly followed be Ben. They looked sick.

"Ben?"/ "Riley?" The girls simultaneously went to their sides.

"What have you guys been doin' all day?" Anna asked, checking Riley for a fever. "God, you're warm."

"Ben, so are you," Abigail said, concern written on her face.

Riley's normal voice returned, "Nothing out of the ordinary. We ran errands, came home, got the mail, read a letter, came inside, started getting hyper."

Riley thought for a moment, as did Ben before Ben spoke up. "Well, the letter had some crap on it, but it was just dust or somethin'."

"Dust? What color?" Anna asked pressingly.

"White."

"Let me see the letter, Riley, what did you do with it?"

"It's on the counter with the rest of the mail," he pointed.

"What's this about?" Abigail asked.

"Other than the hyperactivity, what other symptoms have you experienced?" Anna called from the kitchen.

"Well, doc, I've been disrupting class, making obscene noises and cussing as loud as I can because I'm bored. The other kids think it's funny. My teacher thinks I'm a nuisance," Riley said sarcastically.

"Smartass. I mean, are your lips numb…or and other body part for that matter?"

"Yes," both men said together.

"What's this about?" Abigail repeated, flustered.

"They've been dosed," Anna chuckled.

"Dosed? With what?" the other blonde asked.

"The coca bush's extract refined to a very nice hydrochloride powder," Anna answered as if it was no big deal. She got up to get them bottles of water.

"What?" Abigail looked quizzical.

"Cocaine," Riley answered. Ben and Abigail gave him funny looks.

"Here, drink this, you'll feel better," Anna said handing them the water.

"Come on, you can't be serious," Ben started.

"As a heart attack," Anna retorted.

"I swore I'd never touch the stuff. I can't believe…" Riley seemed lost in thought.

"Riley?" Abigail tried. Nothing.

Anna got right in his face. "Riley? I need you to look at the letter. Do you know who it's from? There's no name here."

"I do now," he said snapping out of it. "But why would they contact me after all these years?"

Ben and Abigail looked puzzled. "Who?" they asked.

"The local Jewish Mafia," Anna piped up. "I'd recognize this handwriting anywhere. James Guttmann."

"They killed my brother! It wasn't his fault! But why now? To rub it in my face? I was just moving on…" Riley almost wept right there. Then, he realized what Anna had said, "Wait, how did you know that?"

"Riley," she said calmly, "don't get mad, and don't hit me if you do. Promise?" He nodded. "Let me start off with an apology--"

"For what? You haven't done anything," he cut in.

"Please, just let me finish." He nodded again. She continued on slowly, "I know this has caused you and your family a lot of pain, but I want you to know, it was necessary. With that said, I have to tell you what I'm talking about. Guttmann didn't kill your brother, Riley."

"What are you talkin' about?" he asked nervously.

"Seven years ago, we got wind of a mob-led drug ring—"

"But the Marshals don't handle that stuff," Riley cut in again.

"Right, the FBI does. By the time they got all the information, they realized just bad it looked for Alex. He had no idea what was goin' on…But they made him the fall guy. That's where we came in—"

"Witness Protection," Ben piped up.

"Exactly. He rolled on them, what he knew, anyway, and we relocated him."

"'We'?" Riley asked.

"I was assigned to handle Alex's case. I've been his contact for the past seven years." Riley shot her a confused and angry look, tears beginning to well up in his brilliant blue eyes. "Riley, I had no choice!"

"You _chose_ not to tell me!"

"My hands were tied! I was a rookie when they gave me the case, barely on the job six months! I only did what I was told to do! How was I supposed to know it'd get this far?!"

"How far?! Where is Alex, Anna?!"

Anna suddenly found the floor fascinating. "I-I don't know," she said softly.

"You what?" he asked as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"Two weeks ago, I got a phone call. It was Alex. He told me he was tired of hiding and he wanted out. I told him not to, they have too many connections to the outside, _it's not safe!_" She was almost hysterical, but she calmed herself and spoke very clearly and slowly, "That cell phone call I got that you saw? It was my boss. Alex left without telling us and he's been missing ever since. Riley, I'm so sorry, I—"

"How could you do this to me?! To my _family_?! We all thought Alex was dead and _you_ didn't tell us otherwise! My mother died practically of a broken heart a year later! I mean sure, the doctors said it was this or that, but _I_ know what it was! She couldn't take Alex's death! I was left with a drunken slob for a father until he finally drank himself to death! I had to babysit him like a child, I had to move back home just to make sure he didn't put a bullet in his head. I 

was twenty-three, I couldn't handle that! Do you have any idea of the damage you've caused?! You tore my family apart! And you decide to tell me about it _now_?! _Of all times?!_" Anna's eyes were tearing through his words. She knew it broke his heart, but it broke her own more to finally know the pain he'd known for the past seven years. "Let me guess," he said more quietly, "it was your idea to make it look like a mob hit?"

"No," she said firmly, meeting his gaze. "It was Alex's. He didn't want you to know what happened! He didn't want you danger. He loves you and he misses you and _that's_ why he wanted to come back!"

"Get out of my house, Agent Diadoro."

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth and stormed out.

Ben and Abigail had been practically silent the whole argument. They knew Riley had a brother, but they never could get him to talk about him. And the rest of his family? Forget it. Now all this comes out. _No wonder_, they thought.

"Riley," Abigail ventured and tried to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't talk to me. Just leave me alone," he said coldly and tried to walk out.

"We still don't know what they want, Riley," Ben called after him, stopping him in his tracks.

"What?"

"The letter. 'You have a debt to be paid,' 'Lives depend on it.' Ring a bell?"

"They have Alex," he said flatly.

"And you let the only person who knows more about these people than you do walk out that door. Because you're pissed off about somethin' she couldn't control. We need her help, Riley."

"I don't want her help," he said stubbornly.

"We don't have a choice, Riley," Abigail stepped in. "Whether you like it or not, she has to help. So pull yourself together and go grab her before she flat out refuses to help!"

"Geez, Abigail, calm down," Ben said.

Riley caved in at her outburst. He never could win an argument with her, so he figured, 'why try now?' "Fine. I'll ask where they are, but _that's_ it. She's _not_ coming with us," he said as if it were to be written into law. "She couldn't have gotten far. She drove the Ferrari. I was supposed to take her home after dinner."

She just kept walking. She didn't even care that she had passed three bus stations already. She wasn't even tired. With her job the way it was, she was used t this kind of stuff. She had the stamina for almost everything. _Stupid me, gotta open my mouth. Way to go, Anna,_ _lose_ _the only friend you've got because of your stupid 'duty to protect'_, she thought as she trekked on. _Rrrring_. She looked down at her cell phone. Riley. She put it away. _What could_ _he possibly wanna talk about? Wanna bitch some more? I'm not in the mood._ _Rrring_. Riley again. She answered this time. "What, Riley?"

"Where are you?" His voice sounded genuinely concerned.

"Where do ya think?"

"Did you walk or take a bus? I'm in the car and I haven't passed you yet, so—"

"I walk pretty fast. Catch me if you can," she said and nearly hung up when she heard him plead on the other end.

"Stay where you are, I'm coming to get you!"

"Like I said, 'catch me if you can!'" she repeated and snapped the phone shut. _What an ass._

"Anna—Damn," he said when he was met by the dial tone. He decided to speed his way through the neighborhood.

He went on for another ten minutes before he spotted the little blonde almost jogging down the sidewalk. _Damn, she_ does _walk fast._ He sped up to meet her. "I caught ya!" he shouted to her. She didn't even look at him. "C'mon, get in the car. You can't walk all the way home."

"Yes I can. I've been doin' good so far," she said stubbornly.

"C'mon, you're gonna get killed out here by yourself," he pleaded. "You're in a bad part of town."

"I can take care of myself, thanks. Or maybe you forgot, my job requires me to take self-defense classes. Not to mention my black belt in Tang Soo Do. That badge isn't plastic, ya know," she retorted. "And I'm not stupid," she added under her breath.

"I know, I'm sorry. It was out of your hands, I understand that, I just-- Look, if you got in the car, I'll explain everything on the way. Just get in the car."

She finally stopped and met his eyes. "Ya know that V-12 sounds different without all that transmission noise. I almost didn't recognize it. You listened to me, I'm impressed," she smiled.

"And I'm listening now. We'll talk on the way. Get in," he said one final time.

"Alright, you twisted my arm." She walked to the passenger side. He was about to reach over and open the door when she stopped him. "Wait, I've always wanted to do this," she said and hopped over the door into the seat with a huge grin. She adjusted herself and buckled up. "Drive," she said.

A/N: So, there ya have the truth. I'm a Criminal Justice major, so the stuff about the Marshals and cocaine is pretty accurate, I assure you hehe. I had to take classes about drugs and their effects, and a Marshal was a guest speaker in one of my other classes. The notes I have are pretty up to date.

Anyhoo…Please review!! I won't update if you don't.


	3. The Meeting

A/N: Thanks!! You guys are doin great!! Keep up the good work!! Ok, here comes some drama.

--

"This is the jewelry store they use as a front for the drug ring," Anna told Ben, Abigail and Riley. She pointed to a picture laid out on the coffee table. "This is the man we're lookin' for," she said pointing to a man in the picture. He was an average-looking man with dark hair and eyes. As warm of a color as they were, Riley could see they were as cold as ice. The expression on his face was menacing. It gave him a chill.

"What do you want us to do, break in and demand answers?" Ben asked.

"Funny." She wasn't the least bit amused. "The only people you'll find in there are mobsters. The customers are generally users. They don't get many couples lookin' for engagement rings, so I'm sorry to say that that probably won't work." She thought for a minute. "They said 'Bring your friends,' so my guess is they've been keepin' tabs on you, Riley. Your best bet would probably be to just walk in. They obviously know who are, I'm sure they won't mind."

"That's comforting," Riley mused.

"Would it make you feel better if I came, too?" Anna asked.

"No. You're not comin'. I can handle it on my own, thanks. They want me anyway, not you. Not any of you, just me."

"Riley, you're not goin' alone," Ben interjected. "Besides, they mentioned Abigail's and my 'expertise,' too. They'll be expectin' all of us."

"That settles it," Anna started, "I gotta get some things. I—"

"Whoa, who said anything about you coming?" Ben asked.

"You said, 'all of us,'" she answered innocently.

"I meant the three of us. You're stayin' here."

"Ben, you're the one that wanted her help," Abigail broke in.

"Yeah, to tell us what we're dealin' with, not tag along like our younger sister."

"That hurt, Benjamin!" Anna threw in, pretending to be insulted.

"I hope it did. You're not goin'. Riley didn't even want you to go," he put in for good measure.

Anna looked at Riley, who was staring at the floor. "And I'm _his_ friend," she said, genuinely hurt this time. "Well I don't care what you think, I'm coming whether you like it or not! You're gonna need my help."

"That's not a reason for you to come," Riley said.

"Yeah? Well, how 'bout this: Alex was my responsibility and he's missing. No one that's followed the rules has ever been harmed while in the Program and I'll be damned if I let that start with me. You guys were dragged into this by relation and association, which makes you my responsibility, too. I'm not just gonna sit back and watch while you guys sign your death warrants," she said as harshly as she could. She hoped she'd drilled it into their heads because she really didn't want to repeat herself. _You're all my friends, I don't wanna lose any of you to this,_ she thought, but decided to leave it unsaid.

"So you're gonna come to cover your ass?" Riley shot back.

"No, I'm gonna come to cover _yours_!" There was an awkward silence after she spoke.

"Okay. Well, I'm gonna get the car," Abigail said as casually as she could.

"Wait for me!" Ben called and followed her out the door.

"I wonder if they're always like that with each other," Abigail said as they walked to the car.

"Then how would they become friends? Besides, you've heard Riley talk about her, he practically glows."

"So you think he's just still mad at her for the whole Alex thing?"

"Wouldn't you be?"

"I guess."

--

"Here," Anna said, handing Riley her pistol.

"What's this for? Won't you need it?" he asked puzzled.

"I've got my on-duty weapon. That's my personal sidearm. I can't hide them both on me, so you'll have to take one," she said loading a backpack with boxes of rounds, some extra loaded clips, and some fillers like an old law book and a magazine, among other things.

"You know Ben doesn't like guns," he said hesitantly.

"That's why I gave it to you."

"You ready?"

"Just gotta get my badge," she said, pulling it out of a drawer. She threw that in the bag as well. "Let's go," she said flinging it over her shoulder.

--

They pulled up to the jewelry store cautiously. Ben was at the wheel, Abigail shotgun, and Riley and Anna in the back seat. The place was eerily quiet. There was no one around, just the few people they could see behind the counters through the windows. Abigail tensed at the sight. She understood what these people were capable of, especially if they found out they had a Marshal with them. But Anna was oddly calm, she noted, looking back at her. She had casually gotten out of the backseat and stood next to Riley as if they weren't about to enter the domain of dangerous mobsters.

"Abigail, ya comin'?" Ben's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah," she said, flinging the door open. "Let's go, then."

Ben let Riley lead the pack, then Abigail, then himself, and Anna in tow. He didn't know why he felt better with her behind him, but he did. They quietly opened the door and gathered themselves in a small group before one of the men at the counters. He looked up at them, taking in their appearances. The young man looked uncomfortable, but calm. The elder man was agitated, about what the man couldn't tell. The slightly taller blonde looked just plain scared. Bu the other blonde, she stood out. He couldn't read her at all. There was no expression on her face, nothing special about the way she stood, no, she was different. It made him wonder what was going on.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah…My name is Riley Poole and I—"

"Ah, I see," the man interjected. "Mr. Guttmann has been expecting you, Mr. Poole. Come this way," he said lifting up the false counter top to let him through. He cautiously started through, then Ben, and the man stopped him. "No, no. Just Mr. Poole," he said. Ben glared at him. "Don't worry. Mr. Poole will be well taken care of," he assured him. Then, he led Riley to the back room.

"Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it," Ben muttered.

"You're not helping," Anna said. "It's gonna be just fine."

"How are you always so collected?" Abigail couldn't hold her tongue any longer.

"It's just the way I am," she said simply and shrugged it off.

--

Riley made his way through a narrow hall at the back of the store. The man leading him through had an odd innocent quality about him that made Riley feel like he really had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Riley knew. He knew all too well. He had the strange compulsion to warn the young man, who didn't look much older than himself. He decided against it. He couldn't risk starting a war, and he knew if he said anything, that's exactly what would happen. _Nice to know_, he thought.

They stopped at a small room at the end of the hallway. The man knocked on the door, "Uh, Mr. Guttmann, sir? There's a Riley Poole here to see you."

"Ah, yes, young Mr. Poole. Please, come in," he said warmly. "Thank you, Rick."

Riley slowly stepped into the room, taking note that the coldness of the man's eyes was about twenty times worse in person. The man looked about Ben's age, with a touch of gray at his temple beginning to show through. Riley extended his hand in greeting. Guttmann shook it, hard. _Ow_, he thought, but smiled nervously. "You, uh, wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes. Take a seat." Riley did so as Guttmann, too, sat back down. "Mr. Poole, I'm a no-nonsense kind of man so I'll get straight to the point. Your family betrayed mine seven years ago. It left me in charge of the business. I made my father a promise on his death bed that I'd avenge him." Riley gulped, but decided against making a smart remark. "So far, things have gone according to plan. Especially when your brother came back. He made it easy for me—"

"What did you do with Alex?" Riley cut in angrily.

"Relax, Mr. Poole. He's alive, and he'll remain that way as long as you do what you're told."

"This can't be about money. You've got plenty of that on your own. What do you want?"

"Alex always said you were the smart one, you figure it out," he said with an evil smile.

"I honestly have no idea what this is about. I almost didn't even know that you were the one who sent me that letter. It took me a while to figure it out, to be frank," he confessed to the mobster.

"It obviously didn't take you too long. Here you are, the next day. Take your time, it'll come to ya."

Riley thought for another minute, then, finally tried his luck with a vague, but on point question. "Which treasure could you possibly want?"

"You're getting warm, Mr. Poole. But it's not the treasure itself that I'm after, I—"

"You just wanna see me squirm, don't ya?" The mobster smiled at him again. "Ya havin' fun yet?" Riley was growing increasingly agitated.

"More than you'll ever know. Since you're having such a hard time with this, I'll clue you in, so to speak. Ever hear of the Ark of the Covenant?"

"Yeah, Indiana Jones found it in the thirties," he said sarcastically. "But what does that have to do with anything? You said you didn't want the treasure."

"I don't. I want what's _on_ the treasure."

"You've lost me." Riley shut his eyes with confusion.

"On the Ark, there were markings, ancient clues if you will, referring to the Promised Land and where it's located. Not to mention what's inside the Ark. The basis of religion as we know it."

Riley was catching on. "So you want me to find the Ark, decode whatever's on it, prove that the Jews own Israel and that our religion is right and everyone else's is wrong. What does that have to do with avenging your father's betrayal?"

"_You_ are gonna do all the dirty work for me. I can't go prison, you see. If _you_ get caught, you'll go away for as long as you live. And as a bonus, your brother gets to live with the same situation I did. His only family taken from him for the rest of his life, and the guilt of getting you involved in the first place. I highly doubt he'll be able to live with it long." His grin grew wider at the thought of Alex's demise.

Riley got the message loud and clear. "And you have Alex as insurance that I do what you want. That's just twisted," he spat. "Ya know, I thought we were supposed to prove to everyone that we _don't_ wanna rule the planet?"

"The Jewish community has this coming to it. My father would've taken the greatest pleasure in this."

"He sounds like a real picnic."

"That'll be all, Mr. Poole," Guttmann said, shooting Riley a glare. "You know what it means if you fail me."

_Alex is dead, I get it._ "What happens if I _dis_prove all of this? I woulda followed your orders, it just wouldn't be the outcome you want." Ouch, he had to say it.

"Then you don't get the outcome you want. Good day, Mr. Poole."

_Yeah, it's been just peachy so far._ "Good bye," he said with a bit of detest laced in it.

"I'll be watching you!" Guttmann called after him.

"Yeah, I'm sure you will be," Riley said under his breath. He didn't even bother turning around.

--

"What's taking them so long?" Ben said impatiently.

"Relax, they've only been in there a little while," Anna said. She was leaning with her back against one of the glass cases.

"You're really enjoying yourself over there, aren't you? They coulda killed him back there by now."

"Yeah, I'm havin' a ball," she snapped, sarcasm dripping from her tone. "I'm sure it won't be much longer." As if on cue, Riley appeared. "See?"

"Riley, what did they say?" Abigail asked quickly.

He looked at the floor almost in disgust. "They have Alex."

"Yeah, we know that. They couldn't have kept you back there all that time just to tell you that," Ben said irritated by Riley's answer, or lack thereof.

He looked up at them with sad eyes. "They'll kill him if we don't do what they want."

"What's that?" Abigail questioned.

"Find the Ark of the Covenant."

They all looked at him in shock. "The what?" Ben asked, breaking the silence.

"You heard me. They don't want it, they just wanna prove that the Jews own Israel or somethin' like that. I kinda lost track, but if we don't prove it, they'll kill Alex," he answered almost hysterically.

"What if we _can't_ prove it?" Anna stepped in, tired of being quiet.

"They kill him anyway," he said flatly.

"Sounds awesome," she said.

"So what do we do?" Abigail asked softly.

"The only thing we _can_ do. Find the Ark," Ben said.

"Well kids, let's go treasure huntin'!" Anna said, not nearly as enthusiastic as she sounded.

"Woo," Riley said, even less amused. He led them out of the jewelry store. _Why? Why does it always involve treasure? All I want is Alex back. I don't need this._

Abigail turned to Ben, "It's gonna be a long ride to the end of this one," she said. "What if we can't find it? What if it doesn't exist as we know it--"

"We have to try," Anna cut in. "If not for Alex's sake, for Riley's," she said pushing past them.

--

A/N: I'm sorry if this sounds a little racist. I'm really not trying to be. I just wanted it to be a power-hungry control freak bad guy who hates the world, and this is what I came up with…I guess because Riley (Justin Bartha, too hehe) is Jewish and lots of people had him celebrating Christmas, it just kinda stuck out to me, I dunno. The Ark thing was my dad's idea, ironically. I just made it my own in the story. Hope you guys like where this is gonna go. Trust me, all will be revealed!

Please keep the reviews comin! It's the only way I know you're still enjoying this.


	4. Plans

A/N: Ok, so I'm gonna try to make this sound as logical as possible. Let me know if you get lost at any point. I'll try to revise it to explain a little clearer. Thanks for your support!! Don't worry, I'm trying to keep the racism to a minimum. Truly and honestly, I have nothing against Jewish people or any other group of people. But in light of the recent holiday, I'm feeling rather generous. I'm gonna post the next chapter, too. Anyway, here comes this chapter—

--

"Where do we start?" Abigail asked on the way back to the mansion.

"Research, I suppose," Ben answered looking over at her quickly in the passenger seat.

Riley had been uncharacteristically quiet since they left the jewelry store. He just sat there, hunched forward, head hanging, staring off into space. His eyes were clouded, almost gray. Anna had noticed, not being able to take her eyes off him. She couldn't take it anymore. She leaned over to him and put a hand on his back. "We're gonna get Alex back," she whispered. He didn't even move. It was like he didn't even hear her. "I promise," she tried again. That got his attention.

"Forgive me if I don't take your word to heart," he spat.

"Riley, have I ever given you reason not to trust me?" She knew it was a stupid question, but at least he was talking.

He looked up at her with ghostly eyes. "Gee, I dunno, let's start with you lying to me ever since I met you. Even longer than that, really."

"That's not a lie, that's a secret, which I told you when it was time. Everything I've ever told you has been the truth."

Riley returned his gaze to the floor. He knew she was right. He did trust her, but forgiving and forgetting that easily was always one of his faults. Ben and Abigail had told him he was too trusting (with the exception of Ian, but hey, the man had "psychopath" radiating from him, who knew he'd be such a great judge of character?) and the first person he decided to pretend to distrust could possibly hold his life in her hands one day. Not to mention she'd held his brother's life in her hands for the past seven years. If she could keep Alex alive all this time, why shouldn't she be able to protect him, Ben and Abigail? He was sick of the angry ruse anyway. _I think she_ _knows that_, he thought. "I do trust you," he said quietly. He gave a faint smirk raising his eyes to hers. "Just don't tell Ben."

She returned the smile. "Your secret's safe with me."

--

"Okay, where do we begin?" Riley asked typing away on his computer. Seconds later, thousands of links popped up to give them information on the Ark of the Covenant. "Alright, 

let's see," he read aloud, "The Ark of the Covenant- the golden ark that was created in Biblical times by Moses and the Hebrew slaves to hold the Ten Commandments passed down by God. Yeah, we got that," he said scrolling down. "Wait a minute," he said clicking a new link. "The legendary Ark has been said to hold secret encryptions on the gold around the lid and sides. Since the Ark has never been proven to exist, these remain rumors. However, the Jewish community believes it to be true and that the markings may lead to the exact location of the Promised Land, among other substantial Biblical discoveries, including the landing spot of Noah's Ark, the true account of the Creation, and the basis of religion as we know it today. But, the most significant part of this information would be to prove that at least the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, are, in fact, true."

"Well at least his claims have some basis," Ben said a little surprised.

"Yeah, or he coulda put this up himself to get us to believe him, knowing we'd use Riley's computer skills," Anna said in distrust. They all looked at her as if she'd grown another head. "What? I don't trust the Internet. Especially when the information we're lookin' up comes from an unreliable source."

"Thanks for your support," Riley muttered.

"Any time," she retorted. "Question."

"Yeah?" Riley asked still pulling information seemingly out of thin air on his laptop.

"Does it say anything about giving the reason they were lost in the desert for forty years?" she joked.

"That's the most racist thing you could possibly say," he shot back.

"I'm only sayin' that Moses was a man, and just like any other man, he might not have wanted to ask for directions," she defended her joke.

"Nicely put, Anna!" Abigail laughed. "No offense, sweetheart," she said to Ben.

"Hey!" Ben shouted. "I have a great sense of direction!"

"That's why we ended up in Chattanooga when we were lookin' for Chicago," she muttered under her breath. Anna overheard and started to laugh harder. Ben and Riley looked at each other at a loss.

"We're sorry," Anna said, trying to contain herself. She wiped some tears from her eyes. "Really though, does it say where we can get any information about its location?"

Riley scrolled down some more. He shook his head. "I got nothin' on that," he said looking up. "But…" he said bringing up a new page.

"But what?" she asked coming over to look over his shoulder.

"I know a place that might," he said highlighting an article mentioning artwork of the Renaissance era with depictions of the legendary relic.

"You really think the Smithsonian could know that?" she asked amazed.

"I don't see why not. Trust me, I've been all over the place, both as a visitor and employee, they've got the records for things you wouldn't believe."

"Yeah, but they wouldn't have that on display," Abigail stepped in.

"They'd have it in the files, though," Riley countered.

"How are you gonna get to the files at the Smithsonian?" Anna asked, not realizing her idiocy.

"You forget who you're dealing with," Riley said boldly. "I can get you in, but after that, you gotta make sure you don't get caught. But we've got that covered, right, Ben?" He flashed an overly cocky smile.

"Get us the layout, my young genius," he said.

"Smithsonian floor plan, comin' up," he said casually, punching in a command to the computer. "That's what I want," he said a few moments later. "Here we go. You've got our typical museum layout out front, exhibits, cafés, information desks, and so on. But here," he clicked on a wall in the graphic, "is a secret hallway, kinda like the one they had at the Library of Congress, leading to offices, preservation rooms, and all kinds of crazy vaults. This," he clicked on a door in the graphic of the secret hallways, "is what we want. Files, documents, and secret books, artifacts, articles, etc. I wouldn't put it past 'em to have the Ark actually back there, but I think that's askin' a bit too much, don't you?" The rest all nodded in agreement. "All you need is a way in," he finished his speech.

"Nicely done, Mr. Poole," Ben said clapping his young friend on the shoulder.

"Piece of cake," he said.

"That's all well and good, but where are we gonna set this up?" Abigail chimed in. "Are they comin' inside, too, or stayin' outside?"

"Well, we really don't need a diversion, but I could keep security busy while Riley took over the system. Of course, something tells me he doesn't need my help in that department," she smirked. "I can be backup, plan B," she said.

"Who said you get to come?" Ben asked.

"We're not goin' through this argument again. I'm coming, that's final."

"Don't argue with her, Ben. It's not worth it," Riley told him defeated.

"Fine, but you're stayin' with Riley."

"I can do that. Just don't make it a habit to boss me around, Ben," she said in all seriousness.

"Is that a threat?

"More like a word of caution."

--

A/N: So, what do ya think? I know, it's kinda short, but it was wicked long in my opinion to keep in one chapter. Anyways… I apologize for stereotyping men's sense of direction. I figured I'd make fun of Ben because we already established Riley has a difficult time following directions in the first movie. How many times did he go the other way? Three or four? Anyway, couldn't help it, I had to do it!! "Couldn't resist, mate."—Captain Jack Sparrow (HA!)

Anyways, I'm sorry for the wait, and lack of action, but I promise, the drama is coming.

I know this isn't as good, or as long, as the rest of these up here, but I do thank you for your support. You guys rock! You guys are so much better at this than I am, I don't wanna hear otherwise. But I would like to hear your opinions on my performance so far. Reviews keep this story going!


	5. Arm Yourself

A/N: Ok, so here comes some action. I hope you guys enjoy it…Mostly I just hope it makes sense.

--

"Everyone remember what they're supposed to do?" Ben asked on the way to the Smithsonian.

"I forget!" Anna said raising a hand. "Why don't you tell me again for the seven hundredth time?"

Granted, it had been a long night of planning and mapping, but she really had no reason to be cranky. However, she couldn't give up the golden opportunity to give a smartass answer, even if it was a little mean spirited. She had some personal time and vacation time coming to her at work so she decided to take advantage of it to help them out. Above all, she wanted to make sure Alex returned home safely. She considered him a good friend of hers, even though she really wasn't sure if he felt the same. That's the reason why she already knew who Riley was. Alex had told her about him. He spoke of his younger brother in glowing terms. She knew that before the relocation Alex and Riley had been very close. He always told her that she and Riley were a lot alike, and that if she ever met him, she'd love him. She was worried about Alex, yes, but she was more upset about Riley, though she'd never admit it out loud. She knew he was broken up over this. She wasn't sure if he even wanted to be out on this hunt, but if it meant getting Alex back, he'd never let on. He'd just sit back, do whatever it took and take whatever the hunt threw at him.

It felt good to her to be in jeans, a t-shirt, hoodie and her Converses. She was laid back, as the treasure-hunting trio had learned through her attitude. She really hated having to dress so professionally for work, especially when she was out in the field. Wearing dress clothes to the office and in court didn't make it any easier to track down criminals, protect and serve (though, that's not law enforcement's true purpose), or put violators behind bars, it just made her look better doing it.

It wasn't a long drive into town, but it sure seemed that way to Riley. The minutes seemed like hours to him, and they just kept dragging on. He felt like if they went any slower, they'd never get what they needed. What exactly was that? The Ark of the Covenant. Why? Because they needed to get his brother back. _Alex is alive. I still can't believe it,_ he thought. _All this time she knew and_—he looked over at Anna and smiled to himself. _I can't stay mad at her. She couldn't help it. _He took in her appearance. He'd come to know her pretty well and to anyone else, she would look cool and collected as always. Not to him. No, he knew she was just as upset over this as he was. _I like this side of her_, he thought. _She seems human this way. The_ _look isn't bad either_, he commented on the outfit. _It suits her better than the crap she wears to work. _

The car stopped and it brought him out of his thoughts. "We're here. Game on," Ben said parking.

They climbed out one by one. Riley and Anna hung back so they wouldn't be noticed as part of the group. Riley had his backpack draped over his shoulder. It contained his usual group of essential electronics for these sorts of things. Anna had her badge and on-duty firearm concealed by her clothes to make herself inconspicuous. She only brought them just in case.

"Alright, see you guys when we're done," Ben said quickening his step to catch Abigail.

"C'mon, let's get to the Renaissance art exhibit," Riley said grabbing Anna's arm and gently pulling.

Anna took out a small digital camera and pretended to take pictures of the various paintings. She scanned the room using the camera's screen until she found Ben and Abigail in it. They were set. "Riley, start it up," she whispered.

"You're on, Gates," he said pretending to fidget in his bag. What he was really doing was tapping into the security systems and turning the cameras and alarms off. Anna took a picture, the flash was the signal. Abigail and Ben quickly, but discretely made their way to the secret door.

"C'mon," Anna said quietly, but Riley didn't follow. Instead, he was stopped by a young woman.

"Oh my God, you're Riley Poole. I've read your book. I loved it…" Riley could only stand wide-eyed, unable to get a word in edgewise. "Ya know, I'd love it if you could sign it for me," she said, almost cornering him.

Anna finally realized Riley wasn't behind her. She turned to see the rather amusing image. She chuckled to herself. Then, remembered the plan. Ben needed Riley's contact. "There you are!" she shouted stomping toward him. He gave her a baffled look. "What the hell are you doin'? Ya know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were flirting with this girl right in front of me!"

Riley caught on quickly. "Do we have to do this out here?! I mean, it's not my fault she wanted an autograph. But it's totally understandable," he said a little conceitedly for effect.

"Oh now you're too good to stick with me! Well if that's the way you want it!" She turned to go, hoping he'd follow.

"Ya know what, get back here, I'm not done yet! You're the one always tryin' to change me and I'm sick of it!" he said catching up with her. He whispered to her, "Thank you."

"No problem," she said.

--

"I don't know if it's that Riley's earpiece isn't working or if they got lost. He's not answering me," Ben said concerned. "Riley, are you there?" he tried again.

"Ben, we're gonna get caught," Abigail told him, pulling him along so they wouldn't be in the same spot for too long.

"Don't worry, he's already turned the cameras off. I hope."

--

The pair made it the café as quickly as they could without bringing attention to themselves. Riley sat down in a corner with his back to the wall and opened his laptop. He put his earpiece in. "Ben, can you hear me?"

_"Riley, what took you so long?"_

"Sorry, got caught up. Where are you now?" he asked trying to sound like he was on the phone in case someone could hear him.

_"In the hallway, about halfway down."_

"Okay, go another five blocks and take a left," he instructed. "Blocks" being the code for "doors."

--

"Come on, Abigail." Ben grabbed her wrist.

"Where are we goin'?"

"Down here," he said making the turn. "K, now what?"

_"Should be the third door on your right," _Riley responded_. "You're doin' just fine."_

"Which cabinet, Riley?" Ben asked looking at the rows after rows of filing cabinets and lockers.

_"Count to five, and then to three on your right hand. That should clear everything up."_

"Cute code, Riley."

_"I try."_

Ben did what he was told and the found the cabinet in question. "We need you to unlock it," he said.

_"Yes, sir."_

Ben and Abigail watched the little light turn from red to green with a beep. Inside the cabinet, there were files upon filed filled to maximum capacity with papers. Ben carefully flipped through them until he came across one on the Ark of the Covenant.

"Riley, you're a genius," he said. "It's here. Again, well done, Mr. Poole."

_"I do my best."_

_"They've got it?"_

"Okay, here come the pictures," he said. "Ya ready?"

_"Hit me with it…Got 'em. Get outta there, mayday, maday."_

Ben gently closed the cabinet drawer, making sure the lock latched and there was no sign of foul play. "Riley, you did turn the alarms off, right?" he asked when the alarm sounded.

_"That was the mayday. I—"_

"Then, what the hell?"

_"I don't know. Get out, get out now."_

_--_

Riley fiddled with his computer frantically. "Oh no. Shit."

"What's wrong?" Anna whispered.

"Somebody hacked into the security computers and rearmed the system. I-I don't know," he said. "I lost my tap into the cameras, I've got nothin'. I know I didn't do it, I turned it off. Well, two can play that game," he said a little more calmly, laced with frustration. He typed something into the computer.

"What did you do?"

"Hacked back into whoever's computer and destroyed it. Every program, every file, everything, gone, forever. That'll teach 'em. They'll never be able to fix it," he said overly proud of himself.

"Calm down. Let's get outta here," she said. "I have an idea."

Riley packed up and followed her out. "What do you mean, 'an idea'?"

"Shhh, look." She pointed to Ben and Abigail from around the corner of the building. "Cops, damn." She looked around and sure enough, there they were, Guttmann and a crony with a computer…a destroyed computer. "Riley," she said nodding in their direction.

"Oh no," he moaned.

"Stay here," she said walking out casually.

"What are you doin'?"

"Excuse me, officers, is there a problem here?" Anna asked the cops.

"Nothin' that concerns you, ma'am," the first officer said. "Just a little side trip gone bad."

Anna discretely flashed her badge. "Actually, it does. You just intercepted a major scheme these two were helping me crack. You could possibly have just ruined the entire operation. This is a matter of national security, gentlemen. How do you think your lieutenant will react when he hears that you possibly coulda blown a federal investigation and the public's safety?"

"Agent, uh—" Ben sarted.

"Have you been advised of your rights?" she asked harshly as she turned to Ben.

"Agent—"

"Have you? Yes or no?"

"Yes, ma'am," he sighed.

"Then you know you have the right to remain silent. Invoke it!" she ordered. "As for you two," she said turning back to the officers, "I can take it from here, gentlemen, thanks." The other officer started to say something, but she cut him off. "If you turn them over to me, I assure you, your lieutenant will hear of your compliance." They couldn't argue with that. "Your country thanks you, gentlemen. Come on, you two. We'll talk about this in my office. Move," she said pushing them gently across the street.

"Thank you, Anna," Abigail said when they were out of earshot.

" And you didn't wanna bring me," she smiled at Ben.

"Where's Riley?"

"I'll go get him," she answered Abigail. A minute later, she returned with Riley. Ben and Abigail had gotten into the car. "You guys gotta get in the back."

"No, it's my car," Ben retorted.

"Those cops are still over there and as far as they know, you're my detainees. Get in the back."

"She has a point, Ben," Abigail confessed.

"Fine," he said and let her and Riley up front.

"Don't worry, Ben. She's a fabulous driver," Riley put in.

"Nice to know."

--

"Okay, here are the pictures you sent me," Riley said pulling them up. The rest of the gang gathered around the table.

"They look pretty ordinary," Anna noted. "You sure there's somethin' here?"

"No, but it doesn't hurt to try."

"That remains to be seen," Abigail said, referring to their mishap in the museum.

"True. Ya know, I said I was sorry. I tried to get it to stop."

"How were you supposed to know they'd have a computer geek to screw up the plan?" Anna threw in. "It wasn't your fault."

"I recognized that guy. It was the same guy that took me to see Guttmann at the jewelry store. Rick, I think."

"Yeah, Rick Goldburge. He's a newbie to the gang. I don't know a lot about him. But I do know he's smart, and he's not easily intimidated. Probably why he's still alive."

"So they have their own Riley?" Ben asked.

"In a manner of speaking, kinda."

"Great," he scoffed.

"I'm sure whatever Rick can do, Riley can do better," Abigail said to lighten the mood.

"No doubt," Riley threw in with a grin.

Anna rolled her eyes, then, returned to the images on the screen in front of her. "Riley, what's this?" she asked pointing to a picture of an almost ancient-looking document.

"I was just gettin' to that, hang on," he answered. "It's written in Hebrew," he continued.

"Well, you're the Jewish one, what's it say?" Anna asked.

He mumbled some Hebrew words to himself and thought for a moment, then it hit him. "It's a journal entry," he said.

"Whose?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, let me see what the next page is. Maybe that'll shed some light." He quickly pulled up the attached page to read it. He groaned.

"What's wrong?" Abigail asked.

"It's in Russian. I can't read it."

"Let me see," Anna said getting closer to read it. She gasped. "Oh my God."

_Now she speaks Russian?_ Ben thought. "What?" he asked.

"It's a letter to the Americans. It says the journal page if from Aaron himself and –"

"Wait, Moses' brother Aaron?"

"That would be him," she confirmed. "It goes on to say that it explains the account of one of the days in the desert. The creation of the Ark, to be exact. Well, there's your supposed proof. The Ark exists, ladies and gentlemen," she said in awe of the situation.

"Does it say anything else?" Abigail asked, even more intrigued than ever.

Anna scrolled down. "Yeah. It says to keep it safe until the time is right…Uh, that the Jews deserve this…And that they should find the Ark as soon as possible, before the Germans do, uh, I mean, before the Germans do what they planned to do," she said looking up at them.

"You mean annihilate the Jews," Riley said grimly.

She looked down at him with sorrowful eyes. "Yeah," she said softly.

"Does it tell us where to start?" Ben broke the silence that lingered after Anna spoke.

"Uh, let's see…No, I can't find that. What about the journal entry? Your turn, Riley," she said backing away for him to read.

"Hmm…" he said reading through it. "It just says that the Promised Land will be a beautiful place, that he's excited about it (loosely translated anyway). Uh…Here we go, it says that the Promised Land lies across the desert bordering the sea. That really doesn't clear anything up," he said disappointed.

"Well, then, we'll just have to start where they started," Ben decided.

"Egypt?" Anna asked.

"You think they left clues behind in Egypt?" Riley asked.

"It's possible," Abigail broke in.

"At least it's a start," Ben said.

--

A/N: Was that confusing to anyone? I'm tryin not to make it confusing, really. I wanted to keep them on the move as much as possible. Don't worry, drama is coming, I promise.

Please review!! You know I thrive on your reviews and support!! Thanks for all you've done so far!!

Happy Independence Day, all late and wrong!!


	6. Walk Like an Egyptian

A/N: Ye ha!! Syke. I've been sick and very confused, I'm sorry lol. Anyway, I hope this chapter clears some stuff up for you guys…Or maybe it'll just make it worse, who knows? It's a long one. Anyway, have fun!

--

Just like that, the gang was off packing for the long trip to Egypt. The original trio packed their usual stuff and, of course, everyone had the essential treasure protecting gear packed. Anna was the only one who didn't have a set list of things to grab, so she just made it up as she went along, grabbing everything she thought she'd need. It wasn't much, she was a light packer. Contrary to Abigail, who had packed half of her closet. Riley got stuck loading it all and was surprised at Anna's luggage, or lack thereof, rather.

"That's all you're bringing?" Ben asked referring to her duffle bag and toiletry case.

"Well, that and my backpack. Don't worry, I've got plenty of clothes and essentials between the two bags," she smiled.

"What, two pairs of pants, four shirts and a couple of bras and some underwear?" Riley threw in.

"No of course not," she said, sounding insulted. "I don't pack underwear, it gets in the way," she said with a wink. Riley dropped the duffle bag on his feet watching her climb into the car, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

Ben smiled at the young man and shook his head. "It was a joke, Riley," he said picking the bag up.

"Uh, yeah…I knew that, uh—" he shut his mouth before anything else could go wrong. _Maybe she didn't notice…Of course she noticed, she's not stupid, me on the other hand, nice…That was a nice image, though, oh whoa, ex-girlfriend's sister, bad Riley!_ he thought, mentally slapping himself.

--

"So you really think there'll be clues out here of where the Ark went?" Riley asked Ben skeptically when they exited the airport.

"No…But ya never know. I mean, we didn't know where the _Charlotte_ was at first. Gotta start somewhere," he answered hopefully.

"So where to? Cairo or Giza?" Anna asked.

"Let's try Giza first," Ben made known. "We'll go first thing in the morning. But first, let's get to our hotel and out of this heat," he said pulling on the collar of his shirt.

"We gonna formulate a plan here, or just wing it?"

"We always have a plan, Anna," Riley said. "But we usually just wing it anyway when that plan fails."

"When have our plans ever failed, Riley?" Ben asked.

"Gee, I dunno, how 'bout when we were on the _Charlotte_. I don't think the plan was to get blown up."

"Okay."

"Or when we actually stole the Declaration and Ian showed up and I lost my feed, or when you made that credit card slip, or now, when Guttmann showed up and Anna had to get you outta police custody, or when were in Buckingham Palace and they found—"

"Alright, I get it!"

"Just to mention a few," he added under his breath. He looked at Anna, who couldn't help but giggle.

They arrived at the hotel around midday local time. Obviously, they were on the plane all night, so it was understandable that they were all a bit fatigued and jet-lag was beginning to set in on top of it. The sleeping arrangements were simple enough: girls in one room, boys in the other. Well, it started out that way, at least, that being the plan. Abigail had other plans. She had been incessantly flirting with Ben since they got off the plane. Riley and Anna could read the signs loud and clear on their own, so they agreed to the switch, at least for the night.

"You sure you don't mind?" Abigail asked.

"No, go ahead, have fun. Just don't yell," Riley said under his breath.

"Grow up, Riley," Anna said. "We'll be just fine. He tries anything, I, well…use your imaginations."

"Good night, then," Ben said.

"Night," she called from halfway through the door. "Come on, Riley."

"That's sick," he said making a face. He went in and closed the door behind him making a gagging noise.

"What, you don't approve of sex?" Anna asked.

"Not like this."

"Like what?" she asked, beginning to unpack her things.

"All spontaneous and open in front of your friends and that," he said following suit.

"What?"

"I mean it should be done right."

"Right how?" she asked throwing a shirt out on the bed.

"Like when you go on a date and you feel an instant connection with the person, so you ask them out again, making sure not to put out on the first date's important, you don't wanna seem easy. And you feel yourself getting closer to the person," he lightly put his fingers around her hips and pulled Anna close to show her, "and you look them in the eyes," he leaned down a little closer, letting his hand go to her cheek as their gazes met, "and the kiss just…feels right." His voice was soft and his words were slow as their lips nearly brushed in a kiss. There was a knock at the door. They pulled apart with a start. "Uh, sorry," he said breaking eye contact.

"It's okay. I-I'll get that, you can go and get ready for bed," she said avoiding his gaze.

"Okay, yeah," he said heading for the bathroom.

Anna opened the door to see Abigail. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh nothin', uh, Ben and I were just wonderin' if you guys had everything you needed. Ben noticed somethin' funny with his luggage."

"Yeah, we seem to be fine. At least, with me, anyway. Riley?!"

"Yeah?"

"You've got all your luggage, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just checkin'," she said with a shrug to Abigail.

"Uh, okay, then. Good night again," Abigail said with a nervous smile.

"Night," Anna retorted with a raised eyebrow. She closed the door. "What's missing, the condoms?" she asked under her breath to herself.

Riley emerged from the bathroom a minute later. "Your turn," he said.

She went to the bathroom to prepare for the night. It wasn't really late, but she knew they wouldn't get anything done with Ben and Abigail "entertaining" themselves next door. She came out to see Riley hadn't unpacked all of his things. Instead, he was just sitting on the bed playing with his laptop. "You're not gonna finish unpacking?"

"Nah. If I'm gonna move in with Ben tomorrow, why should I?"

"I guess you've got a point…Was the gist of what you were sayin' before that you prefer romance?" She looked at him with a furrowed brow.

He looked up and thought for a minute. "I guess you could say that," he said with a one shoulder shrug. "Why?"

"Nothin'. I like that, too," she said with a big smile.

He finally met her gaze again and smiled wide. "Really?"

"I know it doesn't seem that way, but it's true."

"Cool," he said, his eyes lighting up. _Yet_ _another thing we have in common. Yes. _

_--_

"Riley, are you okay?" Anna asked as they walked toward one of the pyramids. He'd been quiet all morning long and now, he was just walking with his head hanging, kicking rocks into the desert.

"Just fine," he lied. His tone told her otherwise. If she had been a complete stranger, she might have believed him, but she wasn't. She could see right through him.

"You don't sound fine," she said.

He glanced up at her and just as quickly returned to the dirt. "You're as bad as Ben. I said, 'I'm fine!'"

She grabbed his arm and held him back from Ben and Abigail, who were already gaining a substantial lead. "Nothin' you can say is gonna hide how you feel, Riley," she said softly. "Please, just tell me what's wrong. I'm in no mood to, but I'll beat it outta you if I have to," she said with a smirk.

He returned the expression with a sad glint in his eyes. "You wouldn't have to try hard," he said, his eyes now wandering form one pyramid to the other. "It's just…What if we don't find anything out here? We'll be back at square one, no closer to findin' the Ark…no closer to finding Alex," he breathed so softly Anna had to lean in to hear him. "I mean, we don't even know where to start. We got no way to read a potential map, if there is one, no idea if the Americans found it, let alone believed the letter in the first place. This is pointless, what if this is all just a big hoax? Nothing good ever comes from chasing imaginary goals, even if they are invaluable to mankind," he said grimly, shuddering at the thought of what could happen to Alex, to the rest of them, if they failed. His eyes fell back to the sandy desert floor once more.

Anna linked her arms around his. "I saw that document with my own eyes, Riley. I believe it's true. Ben and Abigail actually held it in their hands. They believe somethin's out 

here. So what if there isn't? We have all the proof we need in the journal entry from Aaron, and the letter from the Russian, which if my memory serves me correctly, was dated nineteen forty-five. Russia had become an Ally, the war was about to end! If they didn't find it and take it, they at least know where it is," she said. Then it hit her. "Oh my God," she gasped.

"What?"

"The Americans know where it is! If they don't have it, which I'm confident they do, why would they pass up an opportunity like that?" she said all in one breath. "Why didn't I see it before? I'm such an idiot!"

"Slow down, you're not makin' any sense," he said.

"We have to get back to the States. Riley, you're a genius!" she said with a giggle. "Ben, Abigail!" she exclaimed running after them.

"Anna? Anna, wait up!" Riley cried.

"What, Anna?" Ben asked.

"I got it!" she breathed, the heat and running full force for a good two hundred yards catching up to her. Riley came shortly after with the same reaction to the endeavor.

"What, the clue?" Abigail asked. Anna shook her head.

"No, the Americans found the Ark. I'm sure they have it!"

"What makes you so sure?" Ben asked.

"The letter said, 'find it before the Germans do,'" she said. "How could the Sates pass that up? I'm positive they have it. We need to get back to the States!"

"Yeah, but where would we look in the States?" Riley cut in. "I told ya, you weren't makin' sense."

"It has to be here somewhere," she said rummaging through her backpack.

"What?" Abigail asked.

"My old map book," she said. "Aha! I found it." She pulled it out and flipped to the page and read aloud, "'Jewish settlers began returning to Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in the late eighteen hundreds. Britain ruled Palestine from nineteen seventeen to nineteen forty-eight, when the Republic of Israel was proclaimed the home of the Jews.'"

"Yeah, so?" Ben asked.

"_Nineteen forty-eight_? It fits the time frame. The Americans had the information they needed. In the Bible, 2 Samuel, Chapter Six. The title is 'The Ark Brought to Jerusalem.' There's no mention of the Ark past that, at least not in title or subtitle form. They had to have left it there!" Her thoughts were so jumbled, even in her own head, she barely understood them.

"Wait, wait. Who's on first, here?!" Riley said loosely grabbing Anna's wrists.

She took a deep breath. "Okay. The war ended in nineteen forty-five and Britain gave Israel _back_ to the Jews in nineteen forty-eight. The British were Allies, along with the United States, who, if they followed the clue, shoulda come across the hiding place of the Ark in Jerusalem. If they found it, they wouldn't have left it there, they woulda taken it back to the States. That kinda power woulda enabled the Jews, the world was just at peace. Don't you see? The Americans have the Ark of the Covenant! They told Britain about what the letter said and after authenticating it, they agreed to allow them to have Israel, the Land Promised to them by God, hence the creation of Israel as we know it today."

"But that kinda power enables the U.S., too," Ben broke in.

"Yes, _but_, with the new location hidden, and no actual sign of it ever existing, no one would be the wiser. Kee—"

"Keeping the people of Israel happy," Riley cut her off. "There's just one problem with the story, Sherlock."

"What's that?"

"The Israelis, and the rest of the Jews apparently, aren't exactly happy. If you forgot, that's why we're out here, to prove that this is all true. For that, we need the Ark."

"Well we could always stop in Jerusalem and see if they left a clue as to where they took it," she said sarcastically.

Ben looked like he was deep in thought, "Ya know, that just might work."

"Than, to Israel?" Abigail asked.

"To Israel," he said.

"Woo, more clues," Riley said discouraged. _I'm not in the mood for this._

"By the way, Riley, to answer your question: third base," Anna smiled wide. She hoped it lifted it spirits a little.

He smiled at her and shook his head. _Hey, she got it_, he thought. "You're not gonna finish the routine? You're no fun."

--

Things had gone so well the night before, and they were only staying the one more night before they went to Israel, that they agreed to keep the sleeping arrangements the way they were. History has a tendency to repeat itself, but apparently not when it comes to Riley and Anna.

"Give me the gun, Riley!" she shouted.

Ben could barely be heard through the door. _"Riley?! Open up!"_ he knocked.

"No! I can't take it anymore! No more clues, no more hunting! I can't handle it all. I'm not _you_!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means that I'm human and I care about the people around me, and I can't watch them suffer and be okay with it like you! You've just got it all together, don't ya? Everything's just fine if Anna's just fine, which is always! You're never stressed, never outta control. It's sickening!"

_"Riley!"_ The banging got louder.

_Oh yeah, Riley, I've got it all together! _"You think I haven't noticed what this is doing to you?! I know you don't wanna be out here, neither do the rest of us! You think I just wanna cover my ass, but I don't! You want your brother back, _I_ want my _friend_ back! And on top of all that, who has the girlfriend, Riley? Who has the two best friends that would gladly sacrifice themselves for him? _You_ do, Riley! Why do you think they came? Part of the reason I came is because of you! We're here for _you_! I have no one like that, _no one_. I told you, you and my sister are my only two friends, Alex makes three, actually. Of all the people I know, I have three friends," she got a little calmer when tears began to well in her eyes. "But this isn't about me, it's about you! It's about Alex!"

"You can have your pick of any man in the world and you know it! You're smart, you're beautiful, you're funny! Why don't you have relationships? You've got everything else!"

_Okay, you wanna talk about me, that's fine_, she thought. _As long as you don't pull that_ _trigger._ "Yeah, Riley, I have everything else," she said sarcastically. "You really wanna know why I don't have relationships? I don't have relationships because I _can't_ have relationships! I mean, yeah, I've had a boyfriend here or there, but when they ask me how my day was at work, I can't tell them."

_"C'mon, what's goin' on in there?"_ More banging.

"Why not?"

"Oh gee, I dunno, how does this sound? 'Well sweetheart, it was a pretty average day. I had to travel three hours out of town to catch a would-be fugitive before he skipped town, only to walk in on him raping and sodomizing a six-year-old boy.' That's the dinner conversation of the ages. It gets better, listen: 'Yeah, we tried to move in on him, but he used the kid as a shield and the poor boy took two rounds in the chest. His spatter got all over me, I was so close, just the usual.' A SIX-YEAR-OLD CHILD, RILEY! _That's_ what I deal with every day! Do you know how hard it was to tell his parents that their son was _dead_?! How hard it is to deal with the guilt of knowing we didn't do our jobs well enough to save him?! And, it gets better than that. I can see me now with my kids one day: 'Here's your bedtime story, kids," she said doing her best story-telling voice, "Once upon a time there were these to two field agents, and one day they got sent out on a job. That job seemed pretty ordinary until one of the field agents saw four blocks of active C4 sittin' openly in the warehouse. They crept slowly past it, but the first field agent accidentally tripped over a wire. They had thirty seconds to escape. The second agent got out as fast as she could, only to realize her partner wasn't behind her,'" she said. She feigned concern and a gasp. "'Where could he be? She turned to see him being gutted like a fish. The last ten seconds went by in slow motion as she watched him get slung into the air by the building exploding around him. She ducked for cover and when it was all over, all she could find of her adversaries and her partner were shreds of flesh and guts, and in the distance, what was left of a bright, shiny badge. Sweet dreams, kids.'" She began to actually cry. Riley was taken aback. He'd never seen her cry before. He was already crying, this sight just made it worse. "Yeah, great bedtime story, Danny's story…Or I could just tell them about you. 'Tomorrow, it's the story of my friend Riley and how he blew his brains out in Egypt. I tried to stop him, I really did, but this is a story to teach you that you that you can't win 'em all, so don't get upset when you don't,'" she said to herself. The last thought made the tears flow worse. "Please, Riley, give me the gun."

"You're crying," he said, unable to get anything else out. "I can see your tears!"

_"Anna?! Open the door!"_

"And I can see yours! Do you know what that tells me? That you're not as ready to die as you think, kid!"

"'Kid'? I'm thirteen months older than you," he chuckled. "You know what you proved? That you _are_ better than me. You can deal! You'll have people miss you. You realize you have to stick around because it would matter if you weren't here!" he screamed raising the gun.

"Go ahead, pull the trigger, Riley! I want you to tell me what I'm supposed to tell Ben and Abigail when they get in here and see your brain splattered all over the wall! And, think about _this:_ what am I supposed to say to Alex when we find him, huh? You really think it wouldn't matter to him? I can see that conversation now: 'Where's Riley?' 'Oh, don't worry, he's safely buried in Egypt where he shot himself, no problem.'"

_"Riley, don't do anything stupid!"_

The sound of Alex's name again sent him over the edge. "Don't mention him in front of me again," he said turning the pistol toward Anna.

She put her hands out to either side of her body. "What are you gonna do, Riley? You gonna shoot me? You can't do it," she said seriously, biting back her tears.

"I will if I want to," he said moving his finger to the trigger.

"No, I mean you _can't_. The safety's on," she said choking back a laugh.

He glanced at the gun. "No it's—" He was cut off by her reach. She pulled his wrist forward and stepped to the side to get out of the line of fire. He jerked with surprise and accidentally squeezed the trigger, but he didn't let go of the gun. Anna fell backwards. He stopped and stood bolt upright at the sound. He knelt down at Anna's side when he realized she hadn't gotten back up. "Oh my God. Oh my God!"

The door broke open and there stood Ben. "Riley, what have you done?! Let me see," he said.

Riley backed away. "I dunno, I—"

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Anna's voice broke in. "You missed," she said sitting up.

Ben looked up at Riley and grabbed the gun from him. "What were you thinking?! You coulda killed somebody!" he scolded switching the safety on and putting the pistol away. "Do you have any idea how lucky you are?"

Riley bowed his head. "I know," he said apologetically. "I-I didn't mean to, it just, just went off, I—" he mumbled in panic. His blue eyes clouded in fear.

"It's alright," Anna said, pulling him into a hug. He rested his head on her chest, just over her heart like a child and whimpered a bit. "You're fine. I'm sorry," she mouthed to Ben. He shook his head watching her rock his young friend back and forth. "You're okay now," she said in a soothing, motherly tone. Riley had his eyes shut suppressing tears and heavy sobs. He could feel her heart beat nice and slow. She was always so calm. He could've gone to sleep right there in her arms. In fact, he did just that.

"Are you okay? Really?" Ben whispered. She nodded, still rocking and stroking Riley's hair softly. "You guys are so lucky Abigail wasn't here. She'd be hysterical. She _hates_ guns. Not too fond of them myself, as a matter of fact," he made known.

"I know, but I had to bring it, just in case. That's my personal sidearm. I let him have it, I shoulda known it was too much too soon," she whispered burying her face in Riley's hair. "I'm sorry," she said to both of them, sniffling.

"You let him have a gun? He doesn't even know how to use one," Ben said a little louder, but made sure he wasn't loud enough to wake Riley.

"Yes he does," she said swallowing back more tears. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry," she said gathering herself, embarrassed by her lack of composure. Her normal voice returned to explain, "I taught him how to shoot a few weeks ago. I knew he wasn't ready for a .40 caliber weapon, but I don't have anything smaller. I needed both my weapons with me because when I'm on a case, if we have to go overseas, I'm not permitted to bring my on-duty weapon. We have no jurisdiction, just first crack at our fugitive. I guess I got so used to havin' them both with me when I traveled, I didn't even stop to think when I handed it to him. I'm so stupid. That's about the sixth mistake in procedure I've made so far. I am so getting fired for this," she said to Ben. Actually, the last part wasn't to anyone in particular, just a voice of a thought.

"Well, get some rest," Ben told her, getting up. "And hide that gun," he said sternly, pointing at it. He headed though the doorway and stopped, "Sorry about the door."

Anna waited till he was gone to try to move. Riley was a heavy enough sleeper, thank God, to not wake up when she gently pulled away from him to start cleaning the mess up. When she was finished, she knew she'd have to wake him up now to get him into bed. He was too big for her to carry. Luckily, he didn't fight her. He just silently climbed into bed and closed his eyes back up. "Sleep tight, sweetheart," she said running a hand through his hair. "We'll forget about it all in the morning." When she was positive he was sleeping again, she went to bed herself. If only to get some sleep before she woke back up again to check on him. She spent the whole night like that. Sleep for twenty minutes, check on Riley, be awake for an hour to an hour and a half. Sleep for twenty minutes, check on Riley, be awake for an hour to an hour and a half. _It's gonna be a long night_, she thought. _And an even longer flight to Israel_, she mentally scoffed.

--

A/N: Yikes, that was dramatic. I'm sorry, maybe I shouda warned you. Well, at least now you know what's been eating Riley. He doesn't wanna be there. I really wanted to give you some background on Anna's work, so I made it a troubled past…Do these things make a difference later on? Only one way to find out. Keep readin!! I must warn you that I'll be on vacation this coming week, so I may not update as quickly as I usually do. I'm sorry, but hey, everybody needs a few days off once in a while lol.

Oh btw, who doesn't love Abbot and Costello? I had to put them in here. I thought it would be a great tribute to them to put a reference to their most famous routine in the story.

Please Review!! Thanks for everything so far!! You're all awesome!!


	7. Israel

A/N: Hey, everybody! I'm back from vacation with a new chapter! Ok, this one's not quite as long. It gives a little insight to Riley's heritage, though. I tried, but I'm not Jewish, so if I'm wrong about something, try not to yell at me. I tried to keep it to a minimum so I wouldn't get into unknown territory too badly. Well, here goes nothing.

--

"She looks exhausted," Abigail said boarding the plane. "Anna, are you alright?"

"Hm? Yeah, just didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I guess I'm just anxious," she lied.

"I think you should nap on the way," Ben said. He knew the real reason she was up all night. He glanced over at Riley, who, not surprisingly, was well rested and listening to his iPod, seemingly in a different world. Ben shook his head. He felt bad for him, he did, but he couldn't understand the kid's behavior. _He seemed fine one minute, the next, well, let's not go there_, he thought. _Maybe it knocked some sense into him._

"No, I'll be fine. Just go easy on me, I'm new at this," Anna said.

"No, I'll fill you in when we get there." Riley's voice startled everyone. "What? I was listening," he defended.

"I guess that settles that, than," Abigail agreed. "Get some sleep, Anna. We'll wake you when we get there."

Anna nodded and leaned back in her seat. She didn't want to sleep. Her mind was too focused on Riley. The fact that she'd miss the plan was just an afterthought. _Now I know why_ _Ben didn't want Abigail to know_, she thought. She felt a hand on hers. She followed it to see Riley smiling at her sadly.

"I know you were up all night," he whispered. "I woke up a couple times to check on you. I didn't move 'cause I didn't want you to get upset," he started, then looked away. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said hanging his head. "I've always been so good under pressure, I guess it finally caught up with me," he gave a soft chuckle, even though nothing about the situation was funny. "Get some sleep. I'm right here if you need anything," he said squeezing her hand a little tighter.

"Riley, I—"

"Shh, sleep now, talk later," he said. Reluctantly, she did what she was told. "Good night," he whispered.

--

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to land of my people," Riley announced with his arms raised like he was showing it off to them. "Thousands of years worth of history and tradition, 

this is where it all began…we think," he said with a funny look, as if he was actually thinking about it.

"Don't think too hard. In this heat, ya might hurt yourself," Anna quipped.

"Nice to know you're feeling better," he said sarcastically.

"Same to you," she countered.

Abigail looked at Ben with a sigh. "They're back," she said. She shook her head.

"It's a good sign, isn't it?" Ben said with a smile. "Cheer up, Abigail. It's a beautiful day and we're treasure hunting…And our young charges are happy and healthy. It's all good."

"Only you would say that, Ben," she said. He didn't answer. Instead, he just kept walking.

"So, where's that synagogue that was rumored to hold the Ark?" Anna asked. Obviously, she'd already been briefed on the plan.

"In town," Riley answered. "Look, I think it'd be best if I did this alone," he said. "I'm not sure how they'll react to the four of us pokin' around in a place of worship. They're pretty strict, I'm told. At least one of us can get in unnoticed, and well—"

"You're the Jewish one, we get it," Anna finished for him.

"What she said. No offense, Ben, but you're not exactly inconspicuous out here."

"If that's what you think is best, Riley. I don't have a problem with sittin' out on this one, I mean, it's your heritage. This place is sacred to you. I understand where they'd think we're bein' disrespectful. In all honesty, we kinda are."

"Thanks, Ben," he said. "Well, let's get goin'."

--

They walked up to the synagogue. It was simple enough in design. There was really nothing special about the way it looked. Riley stopped at the doors and stared at them.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"I'm kinda afraid of what I'll find. What if they _did_ hide it here? Honestly, I could care less if my religion rules the planet. Why does it matter? Gentiles believe the same things, they just have more added to the story. Who's to say they're wrong? The Ark wouldn't prove that. It would prove The Old Testament. Big whoop," he said. "So either way, they're gonna kill Alex," he said staring off into space.

"Again with the optimism, Riley," Anna said with sarcasm dripping from every syllable. She went up to him and spoke softly, but clearly. "Look, it doesn't matter what we find or don't find. All that matters, is that Guttmann's satisfied with the answer. Even if we have to fudge the truth a little, we'll get Alex back, I promise, alright?" she said bringing his eyes to her own. He didn't answer. "Alright?" she repeated. His eyes left hers and hit the ground. He gave a slight nod. "Good," she said. She started down the steps and turned to catch him opening the door. "Riley," she called. He turned to her.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

He smiled. "Yes, ma'am," he said and entered the synagogue.

"He's gonna blow it," Abigail said.

"Yup," Ben sighed.

"Way to have faith," Anna shot back.

--

Riley prayed for a few minutes before going to the side of the room. He quietly checked around to see if he'd been noticed and discretely snuck to the back room that supposedly once held the Ark. He wasn't sure he wanted to know where it was. He was happy with the life he had. But, if he found the Ark, he'd get his brother back in his life, too. Alex was missed dearly by Riley and his family. To Riley, it was a miracle he was still alive and he had a second chance to get to know him again. But still, all this trouble just to get his brother back? Sure, if the Ark was found, it would redefine faith as we know it, but was it really worth it? Yeah, it was really worth it. If not to redefine history, to save the lives of innocent people. And if they failed, innocent people would be killed. Riley remembered the letter, it was a _promise_.

Riley looked around for what seemed like hours, but it was really only a few minutes. His eyes came across what seemed like a crack in the marble. He went to it and ran his fingers over and around it. He felt a small button. He pushed it in. The panel in front of him popped out to reveal an Ark-sized hiding place. His eyes almost bulged out of his head when he saw a symbol etched into the back panel of the secret safe. "Hello, beautiful," he said. He took a picture of it with his phone and quickly replaced the front panel. Now he had to get out without being noticed. Could he? _No problem_, he thought. He snuck out of the little room in time to see one of Guttmann's goons sitting in one of the pews. _Oh no,_ he thought. _Not now!_ He tried to slip past, but as he got to the door, a hand grabbed his shoulder. _Shit,_ he thought. The man spun him around.

"Hello, Riley," he said.

"What do you want? Where are Ben, Abigail and Anna?"

"Don't worry, they're fine," he said opening the door for Riley to see. They were standing, not-so-casually with another goon.

"Let 'em go. We've done everything Guttmann's wanted us to," he demanded.

"Have you found the Ark?" he asked accusingly.

"Not yet," Riley frowned.

"Than you haven't done what Guttmann's wanted. You've been leading us around on a wild goose chase. Now it's time you pay the price," he said grabbing Riley's arm and dragging him outside. He gave a nod to the other man, who made a move for Ben and Abigail. The man with Riley went for Anna.

"No don't!" Riley shouted. "Look, the Ark exists! It was in there! Just don't hurt them," he pleaded. The men looked at him expectantly. "It's been moved," he started.

"To where?" the first goon demanded.

"I don't know. There was a clue in the old hiding place. It was some sort of code. Uh, it said, 'XCQNMA3848.' I have no idea what it means," he told them. Ben and Abigail gave him angry looks. "Maybe your computer genius that tried to ruin our trip to the Smithsonian can figure it out. Oh, that's right, I destroyed his systems, all of them," he said with a disdainful chuckle.

The men let go of the trio. "We're still watching you," the first man said and shoved Anna forward. Riley caught her before she fell.

"I'm sure. Just try to keep up!" he shouted after them. "Are you guys alright?" he asked. His hug tightened around Anna. He didn't even notice.

"Yeah, we're fine," Ben said. "But now they have the clue, too. What if they get to it before we do? What happens to your brother _then_, Riley?"

"Relax. You think I'm that stupid?" he smiled and pulled out his cell phone to show them the picture. "Look. It's a symbol, not a code."

"Really?" Ben took the phone and, to his surprise, and relief, there was a picture. A very familiar picture. "The seal to the President's book," he said in disbelief.

"Yup," Riley said taking his phone back.

"Back to D.C., then," Ben said confidently. "We need the President's book back. We're gonna need Truman's pages."

"Peachy, another plane ride," Anna said. "Today or tomorrow?"

"Today. We can't risk them gettin' wise and comin' after us," Abigail said pretty definitely.

"Really?" Anna said shooting Riley a wink. He smirked a little. He knew she understood that code. "Okay, let's go."

--

A/N: Told ya that was short. Oh well. Please review!! I don't update unless I get reviews! Do you want Riley to get his brother back? Do you want him to get the girl? You gotta review!!


	8. OK Corral

A/N: Ok, thanks for reviewing!! I got a few. More than I thought I would. It was exciting. Well anyway, here comes some more action.

--

"Why didn't you tell me they attacked you when we were in Israel?" Riley asked putting the ice to Anna's head. He gave her two Tylenol take with a glass of water.

"They didn't really 'attack' us," she started, swallowing the pills.

"Per se," Abigail threw in.

"I guess they didn't think I'd fight back and I surprised them when I did."

"They get her good, too," Ben said. "Butt of the gun to the side of the head."

"Lucky it didn't knock you out. You've got a rock for a head apparently," Riley said to Anna.

"I told you that it's not a big deal. I've dealt with worse injuries on the job before."

"Yeah I know, Miss 'It's Just Twisted'," Riley spat.

"It wasn't _that_ bad," she said. Ben and Abigail looked at each other confused.

"Well, if you had done what the doctor told ya to, you wouldn't have needed surgery," Riley continued.

"Uh, guys, what the hell are you talkin' about?" Ben asked.

"It was just after I met her, November, actually. It actually had nothin' to do with your job, if I remember correctly."

"Nope. Fall Ball. I'm a catcher," she told Ben and Abigail.

"Yeah, the left fielder threw the ball in for the play at the plate and the runner cleated her so bad, her knee twisted, then popped loud enough for me to hear it in the bleachers."

"I made the play though," she said triumphantly.

"Amber and I had to take her to the emergency room, where they found out the extent of the damage. Obviously, her knee was _broken_," he shot Anna an 'I-told-ya-so' look. "Her tendons were all jacked up, ligaments were torn. The cartilage was shattered, it was a mess. She tells me it's not that bad."

"It wasn't. Oh, and the doctor told me I woulda needed surgery anyway, I already had a torn meniscus," she said like it was no big deal.

"That's not the best part, though," Riley stepped back in. "That came when I went to check on you the next day and you weren't home," he said to Anna. He turned to Ben and Abigail, who were looking a bit shocked by all this. "This little genius comes home about five minutes after I got there, _driving_ her car! She's in a cast, over her right knee, and she's drivin' like it's no big deal. She stopped in the driveway to ask me what I was doin' there. So I told her that Amber and I wanted to make sure she was alright. Then I asked her what she thought she was doin' driving. She tells me, 'I had to go to work.' I was like, 'The doctor told you to take it easy for a while.' That's when she got out of the car, and I noticed she wasn't wearin' her cast, like she was _supposed_ to, so I asked her where it was. She says, 'With my crutches.' I asked, 'Well, where are they?' She goes, 'In the house, where I left 'em.' Like it was absolutely nothin' at all. Then she says, 'Don't worry, I'm wearing my brace.' Like that made it better!"

"I was fine. I still don't know why you cared so much. You'd just met me the month before."

"Yeah, you're the only twenty-eight-year-old I've ever seen get _that_ into Halloween," he retorted.

Ben and Abigail just looked on in amazement at the story. Then Ben snapped out of it, "So how _is_ your knee?" he asked.

"Fine," she answered simply.

"What about your head?" Abigail asked more pressingly, being that that was the injury at hand.

"Fine," she said again. "You people worry too much."

--

"Ben, do you remember the codes?" Riley asked.

"Yeah. I just hope the book's still there."

This was familiar territory to them. They were on a treasure hunt, being threatened within inches of their lives and sneaking around top secret government buildings. Of course, the Library of Congress is open to the public, but not where they had to be. Now, thanks to Riley, they had some breathing room. Guttmann's gang was trying to figure out that false clue he'd handed them back in Israel. Anna, however, though she was accustomed to tracking people down in a similar fashion and trekking all over the world, treasure hunting, or rather, treasure protecting, was a new concept to her. She was calm and collected, as usual, but something told her to be on full alert. She wasn't sure why, but something about the situation just didn't seem right. Maybe one could chalk it up to her seven years of service as a Marshal, or her "woman's intuition," she didn't know, but whatever it was, it was telling her to keep a sharp eye.

"Here we go," Ben said tapping the keypad. It beeped the door open. Strolling casually to the bookcase that held the President's book, Ben took a second to check if the coast was still clear. It was. "Okay, we're good," he told the other three.

"Which book was it again?" Abigail asked.

"It wasn't up here, remember? The location is the combination," he reminded her.

"Just for the record, I didn't see any of this," Anna said cupping her hand over her eyes.

"Why not?" Abigail asked.

"Because if she gets caught, she'd be in deeper shit than the rest of us," Riley said.

"Not exactly my choice of words, but effective," Anna put in. "Ben, how's it comin'?"

"I got it," he said. "We have to go to…"

"To…?" Abigail asked.

"I dunno. It's in gibberish."

"Can I see?" Anna asked.

"Here, take a look," Ben said handing her the book.

"Okay, let's see," she said pulling out a Post-it notepad. She looked at it for a moment and wrote the clue down. She pulled out her old law book and looked something up. Everyone else just stared at her expectantly. It was odd to have her work silently, being that they were so used to Ben having to think aloud. She looked up when she felt the weight of their stares. "What?" she asked.

"Have you got anything?" Riley asked.

"Almost, I just—"

"We've got company," Abigail whispered loudly looking over the railing.

"Time to go," Anna said, scribbling something down as fast as she could and placing the Post-it inside her law book as a bookmark. "Here," she said to Ben, handing him the President's book. He put it away.

"You guys go get the car, come pick us up on the other side," Ben told Anna and Riley.

"Yes, sir," Anna said. "Let's go, Riley," she said grabbing him. "I'll drive."

"How did they find us? I sent them to Massachusetts," Riley squeaked.

"They're not the same guys. I knew I shoulda paid more attention," she scolded herself. She got into the driver's seat of the car.

"Will you stop beating yourself up, it's not like you coulda stopped 'em!" he shouted after her. He climbed in shortly thereafter.

"Hold on!" she shouted and sped off.

--

"Come on, Abigail!" Ben called back to her. They didn't look like they were being chased, but who wanted to stop and check?

"I'm going as fast as I can! It was easier to run with Riley, I could keep up with him, he's so short!"

They ran to the opposite side of the building. They hoped splitting up would break the goons up and at least give two of them a chance to get away. It's worked in the past, anyway. They stopped and waited for the car to pull around…Nothing.

"Where could they be?" Abigail asked out of breath.

"I dunno, I don't—Nope, I got 'em!" Ben pointed to the car speeding toward them. "Why aren't they slowing down?"

Anna had the windows down. "I have no breaks! Get out! Run!" she screamed as she drove past.

"Oh my God! Ben!" Abigail shouted as the cronies' van sped by right after them.

"We gotta get help. C'mon!" he said. He took off in the other direction.

--

A shot whizzed by Riley's head. He crouched in his seat. Another shot. _Holy Lord_, he thought. "Why do the bad guys always have to shoot at us?!"

"You have a gun, shoot back!"

"Right," he said. Panic was written all over his face. "Safety off, point, squeeze," he reminded himself. He turned in his seat. He aimed. "Oh God!" He fired. He winged the guy in the passenger seat in the shoulder.

"Nice shot," Anna said looking through the rearview. "Hang on, I'm gonna turn." She jerked the car to the left, the goons on their bumper. They shot again, just missing Riley's face.

Riley turned to fire again. "Shit, I missed. I-I can't do this anymore! I-I—" he sputtered.

"Hang on," she said.

"What are you—" He was thrown backwards, then to the right as she threw the car into reverse. "Oh God, oh God! Anna look where you're goin'!" He spun around quickly to see where they were headed…right for another car.

"I've got mirrors. That's what they're there for!" She spied the other car and turned the wheel to miss it. She sped on backwards. "Hello, gentlemen!" she said pulling her on-duty weapon, still bobbing and weaving through traffic. She aimed the pistol out the windshield glancing back and forth between the van and the traffic around her through the mirrors. There were three men in the van. She fired three rounds. She killed three men. She missed every other vehicle in traffic.

"That was amazing!" Riley said wide-eyed.

"Take the wheel," she ordered. They were still nose to nose with the van.

"What?!"

"Take the wheel," she said climbing out the window.

"What are you doin'?!"

"Somebody's gotta stop the van before it hurts somebody!" she yelled back. She was now on the hood of the car.

"What am I supposed to do? We have no brakes!"

"Hit the gas, turn the wheel, throw it in park and pull the E-break!" she hollered and jumped onto the hood of the van. She carefully made her way to the driver's side window. She shot it out and climbed through.

"Be careful, Anna," Riley said to himself. "Please work!" he prayed when he knew she was safe inside the van. He did what he was told and got the car out of the way. All at once, he shoved it into park and pulled the emergency break. Sure enough, the wheels locked up and the car came to a violent skidding stop. Riley stared at nothing for a second before realizing what just happened. "That's it, she's never driving again!"

Anna steered the van toward the peer. She was about to put it into park when something flashing caught her eye. _Shit!_ she thought. _Bomb!_ She put the cruise control on instead and tried to climb out_. Shit! Shit! Shit!_ She was stuck. On what, only God knew. The van sped off the peer with her inside of it.

Riley had just gotten to the peer when he saw she hadn't come out of the van yet. "Anna?!" he yelled. He ran faster. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the van hit the water…and explode.

"Riley?!" He heard his name, but it had no meaning. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. "Riley!" the voice came again. His eyes never left the flying debris from the crash. Ben came running up to him. "Riley, we gotta get outta here," he panted. "What's wrong?" he asked when he realized his young friend hadn't moved.

"I-I'm gonna be sick," was all he could say before he doubled over and dropped to his knees to vomit.

--

A/N: I told ya there'd be action. I needed a cliffhanger, so here it is. Which way will it go now? Only one way to find out. Btw, you can't have a treasure hunt without a car chase, it's a rule, so there ya go. I hope it made sense.

You know reviews make my day!!


	9. Shots Fired!

A/N: Ok, here comes the conclusion to that cliffhanger…I hope you like! There's a part in here, that may not sound right, but I tried really hard to make the dialog sound logical. Anyway, you'll figure it out lol.

--

Anna popped up out of the water what seemed like ten minutes later. It was really only about one minute. The cool water drenched her entire form like a drowned river rat. "Refreshing," she said to herself as she caught her breath. She climbed the ladder to find that Riley had already gone. _Good job, Riley_, she thought. She really meant it. She didn't want him to get caught by the maniac who had his gun trained on her. She held her hands out to either side of her. Two men went around behind her. One frisked her to find her weapon in the back of her pants.

"Hello, Agent Diadoro," Guttmann said.

"Kiss my ass," she spat. A man was about to pull the trigger of his gun. Anna smirked.

"We need her alive," Guttmann ordered. "She has the next clue." He smiled menacingly.

"Wait, there are clues to these things?" she shot at him.

"Funny, Agent, very amusing. But you know better than to play dumb with me," he said calmly.

She sighed. "Alright, fine, you win, I give up," she said.

"Very good, I knew you'd see it my way."

A man reached for Anna. "In your dreams," she said grabbing his arm. She knocked the gun out of his hand, kicked his knees out from under him and pinned him with his own gun to his head. She looked back up at the mob boss. "I could do it, ya know. Just a little squeeze," she moved her finger to the trigger and started to squeeze. The man flinched in her arms.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Agent. Remember, if you don't cooperate, we kill Alex." She shot him a detest-full look. "That's right. We still have him, he's still alive, for now. Just give me the clue, Agent, and you can be on your merry way."

"You want the clue? I'll give ya a clue," she squeezed the trigger and the man went limp. She dropped his body and pointed the gun towards Guttmann. "I'm not fuckin' around either. The only drawback to my plan is that if I kill you now, I'll probably never find Alex. Shame, he was a model in the Program. Oh well, I'm sure Riley won't mind too much. He understands sacrifices have to be made for the greater good," she said.

"Yes they do," he said. Anna moved to pull the trigger. A shot. Blackness.

--

Riley had been silent the whole cab ride to Patrick and Emily's house. He just sat there on the couch staring off into space. They would swear he was dead if he wasn't breathing. He clutched Anna's antique law book in his hands. He didn't know why, but he somehow got the feeling he'd need it. _It_ is _the only thing I have of her,_ he thought. _What am I gonna tell Amber?_

Abigail was sitting in the chair adjacent to the couch silently. She had no idea where to even begin, an apology, a hug? Ben had filled Patrick and Emily in on what had happened. It was terrible. First, the kid finds out his brother's alive and has been kidnapped, then held hostage while he travels all over the world for a treasure the captors don't even want, now this: his girlfriend's sister, dead, right before his eyes.

"He just sits there, staring," Ben said. "He's been like that ever since the accident."

That must have triggered something in Riley's mind because he finally found his voice. "It wasn't an accident," he said, still staring.

"Well she wouldn't have gotten into that mess if she didn't get into the van like an idiot!"

That set Riley off. All of a sudden he was snapped out of the trance. His clouded, sad, dull blue eyes met Ben's. "She was _not_ an idiot! She was brilliant! She had almost every degree known to man, as a start! You didn't know anything about her, Ben! She had a PhD in Criminal Law, a Master's in Psychology, oh, and you're gonna love this, a Bachelor's in History! It was her minor in college before she decided to get her degree a few years ago. She knew just about as much about this stuff as you do! And that's not even the half of it. That's just her book-smarts! She had street-savvy, too. She could go anywhere she wanted and not be bothered. Wanna know why? Because she _earned_ the respect of _every_ gangster, drug-dealer, and any other kind of person you could think of. And do you know how she was able to read the letter that started all this bullshit?!" Ben gave a wide-eyed shake of the head. He couldn't speak, he was in shock. He'd never seen Riley like this before. "She spoke _seven_ languages! Yeah, _seven_! Russian, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish and English…actually if you count ASL, than _eight_ languages. Her job has to be one of the most stressful known to man, and you wouldn't believe the shit she's dealt with." _I mean, hell, she put up with me through all this. After I blamed her for everything, and nearly shot her. I realize how stupid I was bein, and you've all been here, but—_he thought, but had trouble saying it. "And through all that, she managed to keep her personality, and even her _sanity_! She fixed cars just for kicks, she's the best shot the Marshals had today, and if you weren't so busy bad-mouthing her, you woulda noticed that she figured out the next clue for you!" He grabbed her book and turned to the Post-it note. "There, see? Virginia. Our next stop is Virginia."

"Riley —" Ben started.

"Save it! I need some air," he said exasperated. Everyone stood in silence as they watched him storm out. The slam of the door let them know it was safe to speak again.

"I don't understand why he's so worked up. They barely got along as far as I could see. All they ever did was argue and make fun of each other," Ben said.

Emily went to her son and sat him down. "Oh, Ben, don't you see? He was in love with the girl," she explained.

"What?"

"Couldn't you tell from the way he spoke of her? You'd swear she could walk on water."

"So?"

"So, put yourself in his position. What if it was Abigail in that van?"

He looked over at Abigail, who had begun to cry. "I'd probably do the same thing," he finally sighed. "I better go talk to him."

"Let me know if he'll tell us how he met dear Annamaria," Emily said.

"Annamaria? Mom, how'd you--?"

"She got her Bachelor's at the University of Maryland. She was in my class. Sweet girl. It's a shame. She went to Princeton for her other two degrees. All that talent wasted like this," she said sorrowfully.

"Is there anyone else here who knew somethin' about Anna that I didn't?" he asked.

Patrick and Abigail shook their heads. "Go on, son. Get Riley before he does somethin' rash," Patrick told him.

"I'll be right back," he said. He walked outside to find Riley sitting on the front steps of the house. Ben took a seat next to him. "Wanna talk about it?" he ventured.

"Not really," Riley said staring at the ground.

"Okay. We can just sit…Do you think the Ark's in Virginia?"

"If Anna thought so, than yeah."

"How did you two meet?"

Riley exhaled heavily and shifted a little. He glanced up straight ahead quickly, then straight back down again. "Amber made me meet her. She said, 'it's tradition' in her family. We hit it off right off the bat," he smiled a little and just like that, it vanished. "You remember that story we told you earlier? The one about the softball knee injury?" Ben nodded. "Well, that wasn't the _whole_ story. It wasn't _Amber_ and me that were worried. It was just me. When she asked me why I cared so much, I made up an answer. I shoulda told her then," he said grimly.

"Riley, I—"

Riley finally lifted his head so their eyes could meet. "You love Abigail, right?"

"Yeah, of course, why?"

"Does she know?"

"I've told her, yeah. I—"

"No, I mean, does she _know_? You can say whatever you want, it's the things you do, the _way_ you let her know. You gotta let her know…before it's too late," he said looking back down to the ground.

"How were you supposed to know this would happen?" Abigail's voice broke in. Neither man had noticed her come outside. She sat down on the other side of Riley and put a hand on his back and linked the other with his arm. He looked up at her with haunted eyes.

"I shouda known. God hates me. Everything I've ever tried to do has failed. I try so hard, only to have it blow up in my face, this latest example a little too literally for my tastes. Every time I gain somethin', I lose somethin'. I gained my degree, I lost my brother. I gain a job, I lose my mom, then I gain a drunken father, then I lose him, too. I gain a friend in Ben, I lose my job. I gain fame and fortune, I lose my sanity. I gain a friend in Anna, I lose my girlfriend. I gain my brother back, I lose Anna." Abigail started to say something, but he cut her off. "The only constants were you guys…And even then you weren't all that constant. We lost touch for so long, I didn't even know you two broke up." He got up and started waking.

"Where are you going?" Abigail asked.

"To get Alex back."

"How? You've got no mode of transportation and you really can't expect to—"

"To what? Do this on my own? Well, I'm gonna anyway. I can't lose anybody else."

"Riley!" she called. "Riley," she said catching up with him, "we're not gonna let you do this alone. You can't be alone right now. Patrick and Emily already agreed to come along. You don't have to go through this by yourself."

"What if somebody else gets hurt?"

"Nobody's gonna get hurt."

"You always say that and somebody always does! Maybe you don't remember Shaw or Mitch. This time it was somebody on our own team."

"We're coming, whether you like it or not," she said sternly. He looked at the ground. "Would Anna want you to act like this?" Ouch, that hurt. He looked up at her with tired, ghostly eyes that almost made her cry at the sight.

"No," he said almost inaudibly.

"C'mon, let's go back and get the rest of the gang."

--

It was dark by the time they got to the hide out. Alex was in a small, cold, dark basement. _How cliché_, he thought. He was startled by the sound of voices. He recognized them all. Even the one that was distinctly female. The door swung open and a figure was pushed down the steps. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he couldn't believe them. "Agent Diadoro?"

"Alex, how many times do I have to ask you to call me 'Anna'?"

The door swung open again to reveal a newly bandaged Guttmann. "Nice to see you two getting reacquainted."

"What did you do to him?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"My shot went wild when they knocked me out. He should be dead right now," she said coldly.

Guttmann pulled a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol and put it to Anna's forehead. She didn't even flinch. She just kept staring at him, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "So should you," he said. "But you hold valuable information for us, so you'll live for now." He started to walk up the steps.

"Wait," Anna said. "You said that you didn't want the Ark, or to do the dirty work. So why are you tryin' to race us to the treasure? Why not stick to the original plan?"

"You really would like to know?" She nodded, even though she already had a pretty good idea why. "Alright, I'll tell you. When little Riley sent my men to Massachusetts on that wild goose chase, I figured we'd just let you get the last clue and finish ourselves. You proved yourselves expendable at that moment. It almost worked, too, if you weren't such a damn fine shot."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"Both."

"Fantastic," she scoffed. "I get compliments from the bad guys. Thank you, by the way. Now if I could only get my boss to do the same."

"You forget who's holding the gun, Agent," he said.

"I dare you," she said. He started to pull the trigger.

"No!" Alex cut in. "Just tell him what he wants to know, Anna!"

"Stay out of it, Alex!" she shouted.

"No, please! For Riley. He couldn't handle _both_ of us dead."

"Actually, only one of us would be dead. He knows you're alive."

"Really?"

"Yeah, how else do ya think they got him to agree to this nonsense?"

"Is he still a whiner?"

"And as sarcastic as they come."

"Same old Riley," he smiled.

"Enough chit chat!" Guttmann shouted, obviously annoyed beyond comparison. Both Anna and Alex jumped a little.

Anna gave a small salute. "You have our full attention, sir," she said.

"Tell me the next clue," he said moving the gun toward Alex. Anna looked over at him and sighed.

"Williamsburg, Virginia. That's where they hid the Ark. Just outside of town in one of the old coal mines they used to supply the smith shops back in the day."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Guttmann smiled and lowered his gun. "Thank you, Agent," he said and left them.

"You're not welcome," Anna spat. "Are you alright?" she asked Alex.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I have a question, though," he said.

"Shoot."

"Why are you all wet?"

She laughed a little and shook her head. "I went for a little swim in the Potomac. That's how they caught me."

"You didn't fight them?" he asked astounded. She'd put up a fight every time she got the chance to, even if it wasn't necessary.

"Yeah and no. I let 'em catch me on purpose. I didn't miss when I shot Guttmann. I wanted them to bring me to you. Plus, shots were fired and four men are dead. The FBI is sure to show up. I made sure they left that gun there. My fingerprints are all over it. It won't take them long to trace it back to me. Of course I'll probably get an ass-chewin' when my boss finds out what really happened, but who are they gonna believe, a US Marshal or the Jewish Mafia? Even if they killed me, they woulda connected the dead guys to Guttmann and they'd be out lookin' for him. In turn, they'd find you, and you'd be free and Riley, Ben and Abigail would be off the hook. All would be well," she said sitting down.

"You're insane, ya know that? He really coulda killed you."

"No big deal. If he had let me go, the same woulda happened. I woulda been able to head Riley off, though. He wouldn't have to finish this ridiculous mess."

"How'd you meet him?" Alex asked sitting next to her.

She smiled again. "Ironically, he was dating my sister. They met in South Dakota and hit it off. She stuck with our tradition of all boyfriends have to meet the family. Since I'm the only family she's got left, we were fated to meet."

"You like him?"

"What's not to like? He's smart, he's funny, he's adorable," she said with a smirk.

Alex laughed. "He always cracked _me_ up. So what happened?"

"What?"

"You said, 'he _was_ dating' your sister."

"Oh. Ya know, I dunno exactly. We were all gettin' along so well for a good while. I hung out with them a few times, but gave them their space. Outta the blue Amber told me they broke up, but she didn't want it to infringe on our friendship, Riley's and mine. She wouldn't tell me why. But he doesn't know I know they broke up. Amber and I agreed it was for the best not to tell him. We thought that would make it awkward between us. I don't want that. He's a sweetheart," she finished with a smile.

Alex read her expression and smiled back. "Oh, I see. I told ya so," he said giving her a gentle elbow to the arm.

She smiled and nodded her head a little. "Yeah, ya did," she admitted.

--

A/N: So there ya go. She's not dead. Did you really expect her to be? Come on, that's not nice. I like Riley angst as much as the next girl, but I can't do that to him. I'll make him think she's dead and make him have mental warfare with himself, but that's about it. I'm not that mean…or am I?

Reviews are my favorite gifts! Thanks for all the ones I've got so far! I want you guys to keep up the good work on all your stuff, too. It inspires me to try harder, just to make myself feel like I deserve to have the story up with yours. It's not really working lol.


	10. Hi Ho!

A/N: Ok, here's the last official chapter, finally. I'm sorry if it seems rushed. I had an idea and I couldn't think of any fluffy stuff to start it off, so we're just gonna get straight into it. I'm sorry for the longer than usual wait. My birthday was this past Thursday (the 7th) and we were away for it. Anyway, here comes the chapter…

--

Riley wandered aimlessly through the mineshaft. He had plenty of comments, but given everyone's state, decided to keep them to himself. _At least this creepy tunnel isn't inside a tomb_ he thought.

"Does anybody know how far these go?" Emily asked.

"About another quarter mile, then it opens up. There's a secondary exit shaft on the other side," Ben said. He was, of course, in the lead. Followed by Abigail, Emily, Patrick, and Riley bringing up the rear. Yes, he had to chuckle at that.

"Why would they hide the Ark in a mine?" Abigail asked.

"Well, these mines were deemed unsafe to work in and closed down right after the war. Everyone chalked it up to the UMWA and their antics, but now we know they closed 'em to hide the Ark. No one would be the wiser, and since they're not open to the public or to work in anymore, they wouldn't run the risk of the Ark ever being found. It's brilliant, really. It's pretty much the last place anyone would think to look for a religious relic of that magnitude," Ben explained.

"How is it that Anna figures out the clue and _you_ still know everything about it?" Riley asked.

"It's fate," he said.

"Yeah, you would say that," Riley scoffed.

"Knock it off you two or you'll never make it outta here," Patrick interjected.

--

"So, anybody got a light?" Anna asked her captors. "It opens up in about a tenth of a mile, but after a while it gets pretty hard to see."

"Here," Alex said, lighting his flashlight.

"Let's go than," she ordered.

It was pretty uneventful for the time it took them to get to the open chamber of the mine. The same can be said for our heroes…Well, uneventful until they met up with each other.

--

"See, I told ya there was a chamber down here. Now, all we have to do is—" There was an odd sound coming from the other exit shaft. "Did you hear that?" Ben asked.

"Maybe it's lost miners from the Underworld," Riley put in.

"Come on, we're almost out," a man's voice came.

"Was that Guttmann and his men?" Abigail whispered.

"I don't recognize that voice," Ben made known.

"I do," Riley said appalled. "Alex?" he called.

Alex popped his head out of the mineshaft. "Riley? Is that you, little brother?"

"Yeah it's me," he said bittersweetly. His mood darkened when he saw the man responsible for this whole mess. He was quickly followed by what was left of his gang. But no Anna to be found. "Oh, look, the party host's just arrived," he said.

"Oh perk up, Riley. You'll get what you want when I get what I want," he said.

"You can't give me what I want," he replied. He pulled out Anna's pistol. "But I can," he said raising it at Guttmann.

"Now Riley, there's no reason to be hostile. I've got your brother right here, he's completely unharmed. Why don't you put that gun away? It's not your style."

"No, what I want right now has nothing to do with Alex. This is about a certain US Marshal you murdered."

"You mean _this_ US Marshal?" Two men threw Anna forward.

Riley gasped in awe. "Anna?"

"Oh my God," Ben gasped.

"Hi, Riley. Ben, Abigail, Dr. Appleton, Mr. Gates, how's it goin'?" she asked nonchalantly, as if she hadn't just been blown up, knocked out, kidnapped and being held hostage. Just then, two hands grabbed her from behind. Another two went around Alex. They were being held on either side of Guttmann (Alex to his right and Anna, his left).

"Ya see, Riley, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Guttmann said. "Give me what I want and I'll give you what you want. If not…" he motioned with his hands. Two guns seemed to pop out of thin air. One for each hostage.

Riley looked from Alex to Anna and back to Alex again. His gaze finally rested locked with Anna's. Something in her eyes reminded him of something she told him when they first met. _'It's always a game to the bad guy. You gotta learn to either play their game or make your own.' Make your own,_ he thought. "I have an idea," he said.

"What's that?" Guttmann sounded amused.

"Let me choose," he said.

"Who to have back?"

"No, who to kill. You can have who I don't."

"Riley, what are you doin'?" Alex asked.

"Shut up, Alex! I have nothin' to say to you! You walked out on our family, didn't even have the decency to tell us you were goin'! Mom died because of you, Alex! Then, there was Dad, who drank himself to death a year and a half later! I don't care if you _are_ standin' in front of me, you're dead, Alex, you always will be!"

Anna, of course, knew what he was doing. "Oh stop whinin', Riley! You just want somebody to blame! When this all started, it was _my_ fault, remember?!"

"Yeah, I do! But my beef with you has changed! You can rot in Hell for all I care!"

"What did I ever do to you?!"

"What did you do?! You broke my heart, _that's_ what you did! All this, 'Riley, I wanna be friends,' 'I'll hang out with you, Riley,' 'I love you, Riley.' _It's bullshit!_" That's when it clicked in Ben's mind, who until now, could only look on in horror and confusion. "Ya know what? I think you're _nothing_! You're better off to me dead!"

"So, Riley, who have you chosen?" Guttmann asked patiently.

"Alex. You can have the girl."

Two guns were raised, but only one was fired. The man behind Alex fell. He had a fresh bullet hole in his forehead. Anna had easily escaped her guard's grip and knocked him out. He started to flinch. Another gunshot. Another man dead. Guttmann pulled his .22 and pointed it towards Alex. A shot fired. Guttmann fell, dropping his .22. Riley stood there, still holding Anna's pistol up. Alex went to his brother.

"Riley, I didn't mean for all this to happen, I—"

Riley had lowered the gun and he was turning the safety on. "Next time, duck," he said and flashed a weakly happy smile. His eyes looked like they were beginning to sparkle again. Alex smiled back relieved that Riley wasn't actually mad. They hugged for the first time in seven years. "It's good to see you," Riley whispered. They pulled apart and Alex nodded toward Anna. Riley walked over to her with every kind of seriousness in his step.

"You wanna job? You woulda made a great field agent," she said with a smile.

"Ya know what? I don't care!" he shouted. Anna was taken aback. Could he really have been angry with her? "What I wanna know is what the hell it was you were thinkin' driving that van off the peer! I mean, what's wrong with you? Don't they teach you common sense where you come from?!"

"I had to get it outta harm's way!" she defended over his voice. "I got stuck, that's not my fault! It's not like anybody died, Riley!"

"I FELT LIKE I DID!" That quieted everybody up.

"You-what?" Anna asked, her voice shaky. Her eyes never left his.

"I felt like, when I thought you were dead, I…" he couldn't find the right words.

"What do you want from me?" she squeaked.

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Ye-s," she answered, her voice cracking.

"Alright, I'll really tell you," he said. He put his right arm around her waist and his left fingertips on her hip and gently drew her close. The kiss didn't just feel "right," it felt meant-to-be. Like their embraces were specifically made to compliment each other's. They heard a shot go off. Their lips gently pulled apart. Riley's eyes filled with terror when he looked at her. Her eyes were sad and almost apologetic. Riley let his eyes fall to the fresh blood on his sleeve. _Her_ blood. To his horror, the round had entered through her right and exited through her left side. He brought his eyes back to hers. He nearly unnoticeably shook his head in disbelief, reaching for her cheek and brushing her hair back with the backs of his fingers.

"I-I'm sorry," she whispered. "I know how much that shirt cost you," she joked in a pushed almost exhausted breath.

He mouthed a "No it's—", but he couldn't finish. He was cut off by her collapsing frame. He caught her and quickly, but easily knelt on one knee, cradling her, then, knelt on the other knee to make sure she went down as smoothly as possible. He could feel the tears well in his eyes. They were of fear, sorrow and anger mixed into one giant flood. He fought them back. "Just relax," he finally said, too shocked to be even the slightest bit disgusted.

"It's okay," she said. Every breath she took seemed to be harder than the one before. "It's just a flesh wound," she smiled weakly.

_How are you calm? You've just been shot, there's nothin' to be calm about_, he thought. "Okay, Black Knight. Where's the Holy Grail?" he retorted trying to hide his fear and panic-stricken voice. Then he noticed something he wished he hadn't. A wall of tears had formed in her eyes, too. It reminded him of the knee injury argument and something else she'd told him. _'Look, Riley, if I ever cry because of an injury I want you to dig a hole next to where I'm layin' and bury me in it, 'cause I'll be dead soon after.'_ He shook the memory out of his head. "No, don't cry," he said. She put her hand on his cheek and fidgeted. He noticed her slight wince of pain. It made his heart ache. "No, no," he said taking her hand from his face, "just be still, relax."

"I love you, too," she said softly. He kissed her fingers. A faint smile flashed on her lips before she let out a long, shuddering breath. Her eyes drifted closed.

His heart stopped. "No! No, don't go," he said frantically. _God, no, don't take her from me. Not now! _he prayed, but it was no use. She went completely limp. The tears turned strictly to angry ones when he realized the man who done all this to him was standing next to him with his .38 (he had pulled it from his shoulder holster to shoot Anna) at his temple. "Go ahead," he said through gritted teeth.

"Riley, what are you doin'?" Ben asked. He couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"What else can you possibly take from me? Can you bring me any lower?" Riley asked the mobster. His stare never moved from straight at the ground, just beyond Anna's body.

"Riley!" Abigail coaxed through thick tears of her own. She took a step toward him, but Ben held her back.

"Pull the trigger," Riley said.

"Riley!" Ben shouted. He felt Abigail bury her face into his chest. He blinked for a moment, but everything happened so fast. A shot. Abigail sobbed into Ben's shirt. Ben opened his eyes to see Riley still kneeling there, his gaze fixated to his right. Ben allowed himself to follow his friend's line of sight. To his amazement, and relief, there was Alex holding a gun…And Guttmann dead to Riley's left.

"What? Couldn't let you guys have all the fun," Alex said with a shrug.

Riley's eyes immediately returned to Anna's body. _Please, God, let this work_, he silently prayed trying every known resuscitation technique to bring her back. "_Please_, Anna. You gotta work with me!" he pleaded. Ben and Patrick pulled the young man away from her body. "No, I wouldn't leave Ben, I won't leave Anna!" he yelled.

"Ben was still alive," Patrick muttered softly, so no one could hear.

"Riley, come on, we'll come back for her. Trust me, she's not goin' anywhere," Ben said.

"Real comforting, son," Patrick said.

"Riley, let's go, the mine's probably gonna cave in from all that noise!" Abigail tried.

"Just leave me!" Riley said. "I'm not gonna leave her here! You don't understand. This isn't just about me. Amber needs a body to bury! Believe me, I know how hard it is not to have one," he said glancing at Alex. Alex felt his heart sink with guilt and pain for his brother's loss.

"Riley, sweetheart—" Emily started.

"I'll stay," Alex broke in. Everyone looked at him. "I'll stay with her, Riley. I promise, nothin' 'ill happen. Just go."

Riley looked at his brother through his bloodshot eyes. He couldn't believe he was hearing this. He was about to protest when Ben grabbed and pulled him along, leaving Alex with Anna's body. Now they had no choice, they _had_ to come back, unless they wanted _two_ bodies.

Alex went to Anna's side and pushed her hair out of her face. "Poor kid," he said softly. "Poor _kids_, actually. You and Riley, both. I don't know if I can ever help him out of this one." He sat down beside her to wait more comfortably. He sat there for a few minutes before he noticed the sound of movement. He looked around to see Anna stirring. She opened her eyes a little and tried to roll over to get up. "No, no, don't move," he said.

"Alex?" she said groggily.

"Yeah, it's me," he said in disbelief. "How the hell?"

"It's only a .38, it doesn't do that much," she gasped, "da-ma-ge," she said coughing up blood. "Okay, maybe it does. Whe-re is ev'rybo-dy?" she asked through more coughs.

"They went to get help. God is Riley gonna be happy to see you."

She gave a sleepy smile. "I never thought you'd be right."

He smiled. "I already said, 'told-ya-so', so I won't repeat it."

"Did you guys find the Ark?" She sounded as if she'd just woken up from a nap.

"Does it matter anymore? Guttmann's dead," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?" she breathed.

"Take a look," he said moving for her to see the body. She looked up to see the crazy man's shoes. She smiled.

"You or Riley?"

"Me. He was about to blow Riley's brains out right here where I'm sitting." She frowned.

_How ironic_, she thought, but kept listening as best as she could.

"He was about to let him," he continued.

Her face grew darker, _Oh Riley, it wasn't worth it_.

"I couldn't let him kill my baby brother," he told her. Her face brightened a bit.

"Well done," she said.

"Alex?" a voice called from behind them. "Alex?!"

"We're still back here, Riley. Come and see!"

Riley came staggering down the mineshaft out into the open chamber. "What am I lookin' at? The Ark? Honestly, I don't—"

"Hi, Riley," Anna said sweetly.

He knelt down to her and brushed her hair back with his fingers. The other hand went to her face. "How did you—what the hell? Oh, thank God," he said all in one breath. He kissed her forehead lightly. "You're never leavin' my sight again, you hear me?"

"Yes, Daddy," she quipped.

"I mean it," he said firmly.

"Okay," she gave in. How could she deny that face?

"Ya know, Ben, I never understood why they always had to hide the treasure in the filthiest, hardest to reach places," a familiar voice said.

"Peter?" Anna breathed loudly.

"Hello, Anna," he called to her. "You left quite a trail back there in D.C. We could barely keep up. You're one lucky girl," he teased.

"Well, that's the Federal Bureau of Imbeciles for ya. It just can't do the job right. I mean, if you had, Guttmann wouldn't have had time to do all this. Gotta rely on your witnesses and—", she coughed. "Sorry. And the Marshals, I mean come on, who has to protect the stupid FBI when it screws up? We—"

"That's enough," Riley stepped in. "You're gonna hurt yourself."

Sadusky smiled at the good-natured rivalry. He watched them put Anna on the backboard and take her away. Riley was about to follow, hot on their heels, but Sadusky grabbed him. "Ya know, Riley, you coulda come to us. Before all this happened. You're all lucky you're alive. These men had every opportunity to kill you if they wanted to."

"Yeah, I know," Riley answered glumly. "They always do. So, do you want us to give you the Ark now?"

"I think it's best if we keep this one under our hats," Sadusky winked.

--

The EMTs placed Anna on the stretcher and were about to put her in the helicopter. They knew they couldn't risk wasting any more time with a through and through like that.

"Couldn't you put her in a body bag?" Patrick asked as Emily pushed her face into his shoulder.

"Well, they could, but I might suffocate," she said as loud as she could, which was only about two decibels above a whisper. Patrick, Emily and Abigail went wide-eyed to the side of the stretcher. "Now I know how Mona Lisa feels," she said. "We haven't officially met, I'm Anna," she said to Patrick.

"Patrick," he responded after Abigail having to nudge him. He loosely took her hand in greeting.

"Sir, you're gonna have to let us take her now, she's losin' blood fast," the lead EMT said politely.

"Oh, I'm sorry, young lady. Go ahead," he said.

"I'm coming, too," Riley said climbing in. He turned and waved. "See ya there." He backed out of the way so they could all see Anna wave, too before drifting back into unconsciousness.

--

A/N: Ok, so that's the chapter. Yes, there is an epilogue comin up. It's some fluff, cute stuff.

Anyway, what did ya'll think? I told ya I wasn't that mean. Actually, this was my original ending. I just _really_ wanted to kill her, so I wrote another ending to post as the original and was gonna post this one as the alternate. I went through all the steps of writing it and I looked it over and after all that, I didn't like it so I kept this one instead. I needed to make him sweat a while in this one, too. Hahahaha! I'm partially evil, ask any of my friends lol.

Oh, I have no idea if the Marshals protect the FBI when they screw up, but I thought it would be a nice touch. The rivalry's true, though.


	11. Epilogue

A/N: So, finally, ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion to the story. It's pretty short, but it gets the point across haha. Oh, and I'd really appreciate it if you all could check out my profile and vote on the extremely random poll I put up. I promise that if I ever make any other polls, they will have a point other than pure fun lol. Thanks! Anyway, on with the chapter, yeah?

--

"I got somethin' for ya," Riley said. "You wanna see?"

"Depends on what it is," Anna answered suspiciously.

"C'mon, it's your birthday. I wouldn't get anything bad," he assured her. "C'mon, come see," he said dragging her along. He stopped her as they reached the back steps. "Close your eyes," he told her, the grin widening across his face.

"Okay," she said hesitantly, but did what she was told. She heard her garage door open and felt Riley's hands lightly take hers and pull. She stopped when she felt the temperature change. "Why are we in my garage?"

"Open your eyes and you'll find out," he said. She could hear his smile.

Her eyes opened. "Oh my God," she gasped. "Where did you find one?" There, in her garage, for her birthday, was a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, the split-window coupe. Her favorite make of car. Her favorite model.

"I have my ways," he said, completely satisfied with his surprise. "You like?"

"I _love_!" she said climbing into the driver's seat. She leaned out and grabbed his shirt, dragging him down. "Thank you!" She kissed him. "But why did you buy me a car?"

"She needs a little work, but I figured with your new-found time off, you could work on her. I know how much you like to fix cars up and when I found her, I couldn't pass her up."

"Unfortunately, the only reason I have off work is because you made me take a leave of absence. I'm just fine, it's been three months. Even the department shrink cleared me to go back. Don't ya think you're bein' a little overprotective?"

"No." He sighed and shook his head at her raised eyebrows. "Look. You were in and out of consciousness the entire twenty minute flight to the hospital…They jump-started you twice! I-I—" He shook his head again with a sigh at his lack of explanation for his actions. _That was the longest twenty minutes of my life_. Fortunately with Anna, he never really had to explain. He just walked to the passenger side and got in instead. He opened the glove compartment, changing the subject. "All that's left is for you to sign the papers and she's all yours," he said handing her the title. A black velvet box popped out onto his lap. _Oops…so that's where I left it_, he thought. He quickly hid it before he was caught.

"Ya know, even if Guttmann had gotten out of that mine walkin' under his own power, he still woulda been a dead man. Honestly, the book woulda been thrown at him. Felony Kidnapping, _two_ counts, seven counts Attempted Murder 1, Reckless Endangerment, Extortion, not to mention the weapons charges, the drug charges…and if anything worse had happened…"

"Don't remind me," he said bitterly.

"I'm a Marshal, that's an automatic death sentence, it's Capital Murder. Virginia still has the chair. Even since I lived, if _he_ had, he probably woulda fried. Trust me; nothin' woulda given me greater pleasure than to see that."

Riley looked around aimlessly. "Yeah, well…If he had killed you, nothin' woulda given me greater pleasure either…unless _I_ got to play with the switch. 'Oh, he's not dead, yet? Lemme try again,'" he said making a lever-pulling motion. She laughed. "He's still not dead? Dude, there must be somethin' wrong with this thing," he said making the motions again. The box fell out of his pocket with his pantomime show.

"What's that?" she asked when she heard it hit the door.

"This?" he asked picking it up. She looked at him like, 'Yeah, what else?' "Well, I was gonna wait until we went to dinner tonight, but I guess now's as good a time as any," he said tossing it and catching it. He climbed out of the car and walked to her side. He opened the door and grabbed her legs and pulled them out so she was sideways in the seat and facing him. He got down on one knee. He opened the box to reveal a custom-set, heart-shaped diamond ring. "Ya know I've never been so sure of anything in my whole life before. After six months of doing the impossible, not to mention unnatural, thing of befriending the enemy, and three months of sleeping with her…nothing would make me happier to hear the answer I want. Annamaria Gabriella, will you marry me?"

She gasped. Her eyes were tearing miserably, but no answer. Riley looked patient on the outside, but inside, his heart was nearly jumping out of his chest. "Absolutely," she finally blurted out. He smiled ecstatically. He got up to kiss her. "Just one condition," she said putting a finger on his lips. He knelt back down; a little scared of what was coming next.

"Yeah?" he asked apprehensively.

"You quit callin' me 'the enemy.' I'm not the enemy, I never was…I'm just connected to the enemy. So don't think of it as 'sleeping with the enemy.' Think of it as 'living dangerously'," she smiled. So did he.

"Yes ma'am," he said getting back up. She let him kiss her this time.

The End

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A/N: So there ya go. All's well. I know Riley gets many girls, but I couldn't help but think a lot of them are carbon-copies of him with vaginas, or teenagers (Jailbait, people, hello? Ever heard of it? How 'bout the phrase 'Statutory Rape 5-10' depending on the area you're in) I thought he could have a girl that was sarcastic like him, but still have other qualities that would be attractive. I don't think Riley's a narcissistic character, so I gave him a girl that's not exactly like him.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your final thoughts! Please review!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to make my Thank-Yous

**To my editor/coauthor to so many things, my bff Louie**. I'm glad you took the time to read over this and give me advice. You support me in everything I do, I only hope I've been doin the same for you.

**To the fans of this story** (I know there're more than the four people who reviewed lol, I looked on my stats), I love you guys for all your support. I'm glad you went easy on me because this was my first fic. I know I don't really ever put up reviews for you guys, but I hope I've made it clear in these Author's Notes that I support your creativity and believe you're all talented and need to keep up the good work. I promise: I'll try harder to make reviews lol.

**To Miss Fenway**—You've been great in keeping up with reviews! I thank you so much for taking the time to read my fic and give me feedback. You've been absolutely awesome! I'd also like to thank you for turning me on to Hawk Nelson's "Zero." Yeah, I read _Numb,_ lol. I liked the song so much; I burned it to a CD lol. Not that you care. Anyway, thanks, again!

**To daisyduke80**—You've been so supportive! I'm sorry that you didn't review as much as I woulda liked, but that's ok. I appreciate it all the same.

**To fallen.leaves19**—Thank you for coming outta nowhere with a review! It caught me off guard, but in a good way. I was flattered. It was great to hear from you!

**To FillyRSA**—Your review was a little unexpected, but I was excited to hear from you! Thank you so much!

**To my buddy Cyrus** (who doesn't have an account)—You creep the fuckin shit outta me. (Pardon my French, ladies and gentlemen)

Ok, I'm done. Bye!


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